ti/i/e^^iU^f, 


^?^2^a^' 


cyV.  ^yfur^K:}^  ^^^/^lAe^n^ 


%.^.>.^^%4Lu^ 


ONE   OP  OUE   CONQUEROKS 


ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 


BY 

GEORGE  MEREDITH 


REVISED  EDITION 


NEW  YOKK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER^S   SONS 

1899 


COPYRIGHT,  1897,  BY 
GEORGE  MEREDITH 


HENRY  morse:  o  I  r-i*.  ICINS 


?Sn{bttstts  ^rcss 

John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


HA(A) 


CONTENTS 


OHAF.  PAOa 

I.    ACROSS  LONDON  BRIDGE 1 

II.    THROUGH   THE   VAGUE   TO    THE   INFINITELY   LITTLE  .  9 

III.  OLD   VEUVE 14 

IV.  THE    SECOND   BOTTLE 21 

V.    THE   LONDON  WALK   WESTWARD 31 

VI.    NATALY 40 

VII.    BETWEEN  A   GENERAL   MAN    OF   THE   WORLD    AND    A 

PROFESSIONAL 49 

VIII.    SOME   FAMILIAR   GUESTS 60 

IX.    AN  INSPECTION   OF   LAKELANDS 68 

X.    SKEPSEY  IN    MOTION 80 

XI.    WHEREIN  WE     BEHOLD    THE    COUPLE    JUSTIFIED    OF 

LOVE    HAVING   SIGHT   OF   THEIR   SCOURGE   ...  92 
XII.    TREATS   OF  THE  DUMBNESS   POSSIBLE  WITH  MEMBERS 

OF   A   HOUSEHOLD   HAVING   ONE   HEART        .      .      .  103 

Xm.    THE   LATEST    OF   MRS.    BURMAN 109 

XIV.    DISCLOSES   A   STAGE   ON  THE   DRIVE   TO   PARIS        .      .  119 

XV.    A   PATRIOT   ABROAD 132 

XVI.    ACCOUNTS     FOR     SKEPSEY'S    MISCONDUCT,      SHOWING 

HOW  IT   AFFECTED   NATALY 140 

XVII.     CHIEFLY    UPON     THE    THEME    OF     A    YOUNG    MAID's 

IHfAGINLNG^    ..,,      t      ..,,,,..  U9 


I  93 


VI  CONTENTS 

OHJLF.  PAGE 

XVIII.     SUITORS   FOR   THE   HAND   OF   NESTA  VICTORIA.       .       159 

XIX.  TREATS  OF  NATURE  AND  CIRCUMSTANCE  AND  THE 
DISSENSION  BETWEEN  THEM  AND  OF  A  SAT- 
IRIST'S   MALIGNITY   IN   THE    DIRECTION   OF   HIS 

COUNTRY 171 

XX.    THE   GREAT    ASSEMBLY   AT   LAKELANDS    .       .       .       .       188 

XXI.    DARTREY  FENELLAN 200 

XXII.    CONCERNS   THE    INTRUSION   OF   JARNIMAN     .       .       .       217 

XXIII.  TREATS   OF    THE    LADIES'   LAPDOG    TASSO   FOR   AN 

INSTANCE  OF   MOMENTOUS   EFFECTS  PRODUCED 

BY  VERY   MINOR   CAUSES 226 

XXIV.  NESTA'S    ENGAGEMENT 239 

XXV.    NATALY   IN   ACTION 253 

XXVI.     IN  WHICH   WE   SEE    A   CONVENTIONAL  GENTLEMAN 
ENDEAVOURING     TO     EXAMINE    A    SPECTRE    OF 

HIMSELF 263 

XXVII.    CONTAINS  WHAT   IS   A   SMALL   THING  OR  A  GREAT, 
AS     THE     SOUL     OF     THE     CHIEF     ACTOR     MAY 

DECIDE 269 

XXVni.    MRS.    MARSETT 277 

XXIX.    SHOWS     ONE    OF     THE     SHADOWS    OF     THE  WORLD 

CROSSING   A   virgin's   MIND 289 

XXX.    THE   BURDEN   UPON   NESTA 296 

XXXI.    SHOWS     HOW    THE     SQUIRES    IN     A     CONQUEROR'S 
SERVICE     HAVE     AT    TIMES     TO    DO    KNIGHTLY 

CONQUEST   OF   THEMSELVES 307 

XXXII.     SHOWS   HOW   TEMPER    MAY   KINDLE    TEMPER    AND 

AN  INDIGNANT  WOMAN   GET   HER  WEAPON  .      .      320 

XXXIII.  A  PAIR    OF   WOOERS 327 

XXXIV.  CONTAINS   DEEDS    UNRELATED     AND     EXPOSITIONS 

OF  FEELINGS  .,.,,.,,«..,      338 


CONTENTS                                      '  Vii 

CHAP.  tXOM 
XXXV.    IN    WHICH     AGAIN    WE     MAKE    USE     OF   THE    OLD 

LAMPS   FOR   LIGHTING   AN  ABYSM  A.L  DARKNESS  348 

XXXVI.    NEST  A   AND   HER   FATHER 855 

XXXVII.     THE    MOTHER — THE   DAUGHTER 367 

XXXVIII.    NATALY,   NESTA,   AND   DARTREY   FENELLAN        .      .  377 

XXXIX.    A   CHAPTER   IN   THE   SHADOW   OF   MRS.  MARSETT   .  388 

XL.    AN   EXPIATION 402 

XLI.     THE  NIGHT  OF  THE   GREAT   UNDELIVERED  SPEECH  412 

ZLU.    THE  LAST 425 


ONE  OF  OUE  CONQUEEOES 


CHAPTER  I 

ACROSS   LONDON   BBIDGE 


A  GENTLEMAN,  notewoithy  for  a  lively  countenance  and  a 
waistcoat  to  match,  it,  crossing  London  Bridge  at  noon  on 
a  gusty  April  day,  was  almost  magically  detached  from 
his  conflict  with  the  gale  by  some  sly  strip  of  slipperiness, 
abounding  in  that  conduit  of  the  markets,  which  had  more 
or  less  adroitly  performed  the  trick  upon  preceding  passen- 
gers, and  now  laid  this  one  flat  amid  the  shufle  of  feet, 
peaceful  for  the  moment  as  the  uncomplaining  who  have 
gone  to  Sabrina  beneath  the  tides.  He  was  unhurt,  quite 
sound,  inerely^astonished,  he  remarked,  in  reply  to  the  in- 
quiries of  the  first  kind  helper  at  his  elbow ;  and  it  appeared 
an  acceptable  statement  of  his  condition.  He  laughed, 
shook  his  coat-tails,  smoothed  the  back  of  his  head  rather 
thoughtfully,  thankfully  received  his  runaway  hat,  nodded 
bright  beams  to  right  and  left,  and  making  light  of  the 
muddy  stigmas  imprinted  by  the  pavement,  he  scattered 
another  shower  of  his  nods  and  smiles  around,  to  signify 
that,  as  his  good  friends  would  wish,  he  thoroughly  felt  his 
legs  and  could  walk  unaided.  And  he  was  in  the  act  of 
doing  it,  questioning  his  familiar  behind  the  waistcoat 
amazedly,  to  tell  him  how  such  a  misadventure  could  have 
occurred  to  him  of  all  men,  when  a  glance  below  his  chin 
discomposed  his  outward  face.  "Oh,  confound  the  fel- 
low !  "  he  said,  with  simple  frankness,  and  was  humour- 
ously ruffled,  having  seen  absurd  blots  of  smutty  knuckles 
distributed  over  the  maiden  waistcoat. 

1 


'A  01T:?5  .QF:  QUE;  CONQUEEOES 

His.outcry , was- TIC  ;more  than  jbhe  confidential  communi- 
cation (Df  a  ;g(ii\ial'  s^Dirlt;  witl;  that  distinctive  article  of 
his  attire.  At  the  same  time,  for  these  friendly  people 
about  him  to  share  the  fun  of  the  annoyance,  he  looked 
hastily  brightly  back,  seeming  with  the  contraction  of  his 
brows  to  frown,  on  the  little  band  of  observant  Samari- 
tans; in  the  centre  of  whom  a  man  who  knew  himself 
honourably  unclean,  perhaps  consequently  a  bit  of  a  polit- 
ical jewel,  hearing  one  of  their  number  confounded  for 
his  pains,  and  by  the  wearer  of  a  superfine  dashing-white 
waistcoat,  was  moved  to  take  notice  of  the  total  deficiency 
of  gratitude  in  this  kind  of  gentleman's  look  and  pocket. 
If  we  ask  for  nothing  for  helping  gentlemen  to  stand  up- 
right on  their  legs,  and  get  it,  we  expect  civility  into  the 
bargain.  Moreover,  there  are  reasons  in  nature  why  we 
choose  to  give  sign  of  a  particular  surliness  when  our 
wealthy  superiors  would  have  us  think  their  condescend- 
ing grins  are  cordials. 

The  gentleman's  eyes  were  followed  on  a  second  hurried 
downward  grimace,  the  necessitated  wrinkles  of  which 
could  be  stretched  by  malevolence  to  a  semblance  of 
haughty  disgust;  reminding  us,  through  our  readings  in 
journals,  of  the  wicked  overblown  Prince  Kegent  and  his 
Court,  together  with  the  view  taken  of  honest  labour  in 
the  mind  of  supercilious  luxury,  even  if  indebted  to  it 
freshly  for  a  trifle;  and  the  hoar-headed  nineteenth-cen- 
tury billow  of  democratic  ire  craved  the  word  to  be  set 
swelling. 

"  Am  I  the  fellow  you  mean,  sir  ?  "  the  man  said. 

He  was  answered,  not  ungraciously:  "All  right,  my 
man." 

But  the  balance  of  our  public  equanimity  is  prone  to 
violent  antic  bobbings  on  occasions  when,  for  example,  an 
ostentatious  garment  shall  appear  disdainful  of  our  class 
and  ourself,  and  coin  of  the  realm  has  not  usurped  com- 
mand of  one  of  the  scales :  thus  a  fairly  pleasant  answer, 
cast  in  persuasive  features,  provoked  the  retort  — 

"There  you  're  wrong;  nor  would  n't  be." 

"What 's  that  ?  "  was  the  gentleman's  musical  inquiry. 

"That's  flat,  as  you  was  half  a  minute  ago,"  the  man 
rejoined. 


ACROSS  LONDON  BRIDGE  3 

"Ah,  well,  don't  be  impudent,"  the  gentleman  said,  by 
way  of  amiable  remonstrance  before  a  parting. 

"And  none  of  your  dam  punctilio,"  said  the  man. 

Their  exchange  rattled  smartly,  without  a  direct  hos- 
tility, and  the  gentleman  stepped  forward. 

It  was  observed  in  the  crowd,  that  after  a  few  paces  he 
put  two  fingers  on  the  back  of  his  head. 

They  might  suppose  him  to  be  condoling  with  his  recent 
mishap.  But,  in  fact,  a  thing  had  occurred  to  vex  him 
more  than  a  descent  upon  the  pavement  or  damage  to  his 
waistcoat's  whiteness:  he  abominated  the  thought  of  an 
altercation  with  a  member  of  the  mob;  he  found  that  enor- 
mous beast  comprehensible  only  when  it  applauded  him; 
and  besides  he  wished  it  warmly  well;  all  that  was  good 
for  it ;  plentiful  dinners,  country  excursions ,  stout  menage- 
rie bars,  music,  a  dance,  and  to  bed :  he  was  for  patting, 
stroking,  petting  the  mob,  for  tossing  it  sops,  never  for 
irritating  it  to  show  an  eye-tooth,  much  less  for  causing 
it  to  exhibit  the  grinders:  and  in  endeavouring  to  get  at 
the  grounds  of  his  dissension  with  that  dirty-fisted  fellow, 
the  recollection  of  the  word  punctilio  shot  a  throb  of  pain 
to  the  spot  where  his  mishap  had  rendered  him  suscep- 
tible. Headache  threatened  —  and  to  him  of  all  men! 
But  was  there  ever  such  a  word  for  drumming  on  a 
cranium  ?  Puzzles  are  presented  to  us  now  and  then  in 
the  course  of  our  days;  and  the  smaller  they  are  the 
better  for  the  purpose,  it  would  seem ;  and  they  come  in 
rattle-boxes,  they  are  actually  children's  toys,  for  what  they 
contain,  but  not  the  less  do  they  buzz  at  our  understand- 
ings and  insist  that  they  break  or  we,  and,  in  either  case, 
to  show  a  mere  foolish  idle  rattle  in  hollowness.  Or 
does  this  happen  to  us  only  after  a  fall  ? 

He  tried  a  suspension  of  his  mental  efforts,  and  the 
word  was  like  the  clapper  of  a  disorderly  bell,  striking 
through  him,  with  reverberations,  in  the  form  of  interro- 
gations, as  to  how  he,  of  all  men  living,  could  by  any 
chance  have  got  into  a  wrangle,  in  a  thoroughfare,  on 
London  Bridge,  of  all  places  in  the  world !  —  he,  so  popu- 
lar, renowned  for  his  affability,  his  amiability;  having  no 
dislike  to  common  dirty  dogs,  entirely  the  reverse,  liking 
them  and  doing  his  best  for  themj    and  accustomed  to 


4  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEKOES 

receive  their  applause.  And  in  what  way  had  he  offered 
a  hint  to  bring  on  him  the  charge  of  punctilio  ? 

"But  I  am  treating  it  seriously!'^  he  said,  and  jerked  a 
dead  laugh  while  fixing  a  button  of  his  coat. 

That  he  should  have  treated  it  seriously,  furnished  next 
the  subject  of  cogitation;  and  here  it  was  plainly  sug- 
gested, that  a  degradation  of  his  physical  system,  owing 
to  the  shock  of  the  fall,  must  be  seen  arid  acknowledged  ; 
for  it  had  become  a  perverted  engine,  to  pull  him  down 
among  the  puerilities,  and  very  soon  he  was  worrying  at 
punctilio  anew,  attempting  to  read  the  riddle  of  the  appli- 
cation of  it  to  himself,  angry  that  he  had  allowed  it  to  be 
the  final  word,  and  admitting  it  a  famous  word  for  the 
closing  of  a  controversy :  —  it  banged  the  door  and  rolled 
drum-notes;  it  deafened  reason.  And  was  it  a  London 
cockney  crow-word  of  the  day,  or  a  word  that  had  stuck 
in  the  fellow's  head  from  the  perusal  of  his  pothouse  news- 
paper columns  ? 

Furthermore,  the  plea  of  a  fall,  and  the  plea  of  a  shock 
from  a  fall,  required  to  account  for  the  triviality  of  the 
mind,  were  humiliating  to  him  who  had  never  hitherto 
missed  a  step,  or  owned  to  the  shortest  of  collapses.  This 
confession  of  deficiency  in  explosive  repartee  —  using  a 
friend's  term  for  the  ready  gift  —  was  an  old  and  a  rueful 
one  with  Victor  Eadnor.  His  godmother  Fortune  denied 
him  that.  She  bestowed  it  on  his  friend  Fenellan,  and 
little  else.  Simeon  Fenellan  could  clap  the  halter  on  a 
coltish  mob ;  he  had  positively  caught  the  roar  of  cries  and 
stilled  it,  by  capping  the  cries  in  turn,  until  the  people 
cheered  him;  and  the  effect  of  the  scene  upon  Victor 
Radnor  disposed  him  to  rank  the  gift  of  repartee  higher 
than  a  certain  rosily  oratorical  that  he  was  permitted  to 
tell  himself  he  possessed,  in  bottle  if  not  on  draught. 
Let  it  only  be  explosive  repartee:  the  well-fused  bomb, 
the  bubble  to  the  stone,  echo  round  the  horn.  Fenellan 
would  have  discharged  an  extinguisher  on  punctilio  in 
emission.  Victor  Kadnor  was  unable  to  cope  with  it 
reflectively. 

No,  but  one  does  n't  like  being  beaten  by  anything!  he 
replied  to  an  admonishment  of  his  better  mind,  as  he 
touched  his  two  fingerS;  more  significantly  dubious  than 


ACKOSS  LONDON  BEIDGE  6 

the  whole  hand,  at  the  back  of  his  head,  and  checked  or 
stemmed  the  current  of  a  fear.  For  he  was  utterly  unlike 
himself;  he  was  dwelling  on  a  trifle,  on  a  matter  discern- 
ibly  the  smallest,  an  incident  of  the  streets ;  and  although 
he  refused  to  feel  a  bump  or  any  responsive  notification  of 
a  bruise,  he  made  a  sacrifice  of  his  native  pride  to  his 
intellectual,  in  granting  that  he  must  have  been  shaken, 
so  childishly  did  he  continue  thinking. 

Yes,  well,  and  if  a  tumble  distorts  our  ideas  of  life,  and 
an  odd  word  engrosses  our  speculations,  we  are  poor  crea- 
tures, he  addressed  another  friend,  from  whom  he  stood 
constitutionally  in  dissent,  naming  him  Colney;  and  under 
pressure  of  the  name,  reviving  old  wrangles  between  them 
upon  man's  present  achievements  and  his  probable  des- 
tinies: especially  upon  England's  grandeur,  vitality, 
stability,  her  intelligent  appreciation  of  her  place  in  the 
universe ;  not  to  speak  of  the  historic  dignity  of  London 
City.  Colney  had  to  be  overcome  afresh,  and  he  fled, 
but  managed,  with  two  or  three  of  his  bitter  phrases,  to 
make  a  cuttle-fish  fight  of  it,  that  oppressively  shadowed 
his  vanquisher :  — 

Th&  Daniel  Lambert  of  Cities :  the  Female  Annuitant  of 
Nations :  —  and  such  like,  wretched  stuff,  proper  to  Colney 
Durance,  easily  dispersed  and  out-laughed  when  we  have 
our  vigour.  We  have  as  much  as  we  need  of  it  in  sum- 
moning a  contemptuous  Pooh  to  our  lips,  with  a  shrug  at 
venomous  dyspepsia. 

Nevertheless,  a  malignant  sketch  of  Colney 's,  in  the 
which  Hengist  and  Horsa,  our  fishy  Saxon  originals,  in 
modern  garb  of  liveryman  and  gaitered  squire,  flat-headed, 
paunchy,  assiduously  servile,  are  shown  blacking  Ben- 
IsraeFs  boots  and  grooming  the  princely  stud  of  the  Jew, 
had  come  so  near  to  Victor  Radnor's  apprehensions  of  a 
possible,  if  not  an  impending,  consummation,  that  the 
ghastly  vision  of  the  Jew  Dominant  in  London  City,  over 
England,  over  Europe,  America,  the  world  (a  picture 
drawn  in  literary  sepia  by  Colney:  with  our  poor  hang- 
neck  population  uncertain  about  making  a  bell-rope  of  the 
forelock  to  the  Satyr-snouty  master ;  and  the  Norman  Lord 
de  Warenne  handing  him  for  a  lump  sum  son  and  daughter, 
both  to  be  Hebraized  in  their  different  ways),  fastened  on 


6  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEORS 

the  most  mercurial  of  patriotic  men,  and  gave  him  a  whole- 
length  plunge  into  despondency. 

It  lasted  nearly  a  minute.  His  recovery  was  not  in  this 
instance  due  to  the  calling  on  himself  for  the  rescue  of  an 
ancient  and  glorious  country;  nor  altogether  to  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  shipping,  over  the  parapet,  to  his  right:  the 
hundreds  of  masts  rising  out  of  the  merchant  river;  Lon- 
don's unrivalled  mezzotint  and  the  City  rhetorician's  inex- 
haustible argument :  he  gained  it  rather  from  the  imperious 
demand  of  an  animated  and  thirsty  frame  for  novel  impres- 
sions. Commonly  he  was  too  hot  with  his  business,  and 
airy  fancies  above  it,  when  crossing  the  bridge,  to  reflect 
in  freshness  on  its  wonders;  though  a  phrase  could  spring 
him  alive  to  them ;  a  suggestion  of  the  Foreigner,  jealous, 
condemned  to  admire  in  despair  of  outstripping,  like  Satan 
worsted;  or  when  a  Premier's  fine  inflation  magnified  the 
scene  at  City  banquets  —  exciting  while  audible,  if  a 
waggery  in  memory;  or  when  England's  cherished  Bard, 
the  Leading  Article,  blew  bellows,  and  wind  primed  the 
lieges. 

That  a  phrase  on  any  other  subject  was  of  much  the 
same  effect,  in  relation  to  it,  may  be  owned;  he  was 
lightly  kindled.  The  scene,  however,  had  a  sharp  sparkle 
of  attractiveness  at  the  instant.  Down  went  the  twirling 
horizontal  pillars  of  a  strong  tide  from  the  arches  of  the 
bridge,  breaking  to  wild  water  at  a  remove ;  and  a  reddish 
Northern  cheek  of  curdling  pipeing  East,  at  shrilly  puffs 
between  the  Tower  and  the  Custom  House,  encountered  it 
to  whip  and  ridge  the  flood  against  descending  tug  and 
long  tail  of  stern-ajerk  empty  barges;  with  a  steamer 
slowly  noseing  round  off  the  wharf-cranes,  preparing  to 
swirl  the  screw;  and  half-bottom-upward  boats  dancing 
harpooner  beside  their  whale ;  along  an  avenue,  not  fabu- 
lously golden,  of  the  deputy  masts  of  all  nations,  a  wintry 
woodland,  every  rag  aloft  curling  to  volume ;  and  here  the 
spouts  and  the  mounds  of  steam,  and  rolls  of  brown  smoke 
there,  variously  undulated,  curved  to  vanish ;  cold  blue  sky 
ashift  with  the  whirl  and  dash  of  a  very  Tartar  cavalry  of 
cloud  overhead. 

Surely  a  scene  pretending  to  sublimity  ? 

Gazeiug  along  that  grand  highway  of  the  voyageing 


ACROSS  LONDON  BEIDGE  7 

forest,  jowT  London  citizen  of  good  estate  has  reproached 
his  country's  poets  for  not  pouring  out,  succinctly  and 
melodiously,  his  multitudinous  larvae  of  notions  begotten 
by  the  scene.  For  there  are  times  when  he  would  pay  to 
have  them  sung;  and  he  feels  them  big;  he  thinks  them 
human  in  their  bulk;  they  are  Londinensian;  they  want 
but  form  and  fire  to  get  them  scored  on  the  tablets  of  the 
quotable  at  festive  boards.  This  he  can  promise  to  his 
poets.  As  for  otherwhere  than  at  the  festive,  Commerce 
invoked  is  a  Goddess  that  will  have  the  reek  of  those 
boards  to  fill  her  nostrils,  and  poet  and  alderuian  alike  may 
be  dedicate  to  the  sublime,  she  leads  them,  after  two  sniffs 
of  an  idea  concerning  her,  for  the  dive  into  the  turtle- 
tureen.     Heels  up  they  go,  poet  first  —  a  plummet  he! 

And  besides  it  is  barely  possible  for  our  rounded  citizen, 
in  the  mood  of  meditation,  to  direct  his  gaze  off  the  bridge 
along  the  waterway  North-eastward  without  beholding  as 
an  eye  the  glow  of  whitebait's  bow-window  by  the  river- 
side, to  the  front  of  the  summer  sunset,  a  league  or  so 
down  stream;  where  he  sees,  in  memory  savours,  the 
Elysian  end  of  Commerce :  frontispiece  of  a  tale  to  fetch 
us  up  the  out-wearied  spectre  of  old  Apicius;  yea,  and 
urge  Crispinus  to  wheel  his  purse  into  the  market  for  the 
purchase  of  a  costlier  mullet ! 

But  is  the  Jew  of  the  usury  gold  becoming  our  despot- 
king  of  Commerce  ? 

In  that  case,  we  do  not  ask  our  country's  poets  to  com- 
pose a  single  stanza  of  eulogy's  rhymes  —  far  from  it. 
Far  to  the  contrary,  we  bid  ourselves  remember  the  sons 
of  whom  we  are ;  instead  of  revelling  in  the  fruits  of  Com- 
merce, we  shoot  scornfully  past  those  blazing  bellied  win- 
dows of  the  aromatic  dinners,  and  beyond  Thames,  away 
to  the  fishermen's  deeps,  Old  England's  native  element, 
where  the  strenuous  ancestry  of  a  race  yet  and  ever  manful 
at  the  stress  of  trial  are  heard  around  and  aloft  whistling 
us  back  to  the  splendid  strain  of  muscle,  and  spray  fringes 
cloud,  and  strong  heart  rides  the  briny  scoops  and  hil- 
locks, and  Death  and  Man  are  at  grip  for  the  haul. 

There  we  find  our  nationality,  our  poetry,  no  Hebrew 
competing. 

We  do :  or  there  at  least  we  left  it.     Whether  to  recover 


8  ONE  O^  OJm  CONQUEEORS 

it  when  wanted,  is  not  so  certain.  Humpy  Hengist  and 
dumpy  Horsa,  quitting  ledger  and  coronet,  might  recur  to 
their  sea  bow-legs  and  red-stubble  chins,  might  take  to  their 
tarpaulins  again ;  they  might  renew  their  manhood  on  the 
capture  of  cod;  headed  by  Harald  and  Hardiknut,  they 
might  roll  surges  to  whelm  a  Dominant  Jew  clean  gone  to 
the  fleshpots  and  effeminacy.  Aldermen  of  our  ancient 
conception,  they  may  teach  him  that  he  has  been  backslid- 
ing once  more,  and  must  repent  in  ashes,  as  those  who  are 
for  jewels,  titles,  essences,  banquets,  for  wallowing  in 
slimy  spawn  of  lucre ,  have  ever  to  do.  They  dispossess 
him  of  his  greedy  gettings. 

And  how  of  the  Law  ? 

But  the  Law  is  always,  and  must  ever  be,  the  Law  of 
the  stronger. 

—  Ay,  but  brain  beats  muscle,  and  what  if  the  Jew 
should  prove  to  have  superior  power  of  brain  ?  A  dreaded 
hypothesis !  Why,  then  you  see  the  insurgent  Saxon  seamen 
(of  the  names  in  two  syllables  with  accent  on  the  first), 
and  their  Danish  captains,  and  it  may  be  but  a  remnant  of 
high-nosed  old  Norman  Lord  de  Warenne  beside  them,  in 
the  criminal  box :  and  presently  the  Jew  smoking  a  giant 
regalia  cigar  on  a  balcony  giving  view  of  a  gallows-tree. 
But  we  will  try  that :  on  our  side,  to  back  a  native  pug- 
nacity, is  morality,  humanity,  fraternity  —  nature's  rights, 
aha!  and  who  withstands  them?  on  his,  a  troop  of 
mercenaries ! 

—  And  that  lands  me  in  Red  Republicanism,  a  hop  and 
a  skip  from  Socialism!  said  Mr.  Radnor,  and  chuckled 
ironically  at  the  natural  declivity  he  had  come  to.  Still, 
there  was  an  idea  in  it.  .  .  . 

A  short  run  or  attempt  at  running  after  the  idea,  ended 
in  pain  to  his  head  near  the  spot  where  the  haunting  word 
punctilio  caught  at  any  excuse  for  clamouring. 

Yet  we  cannot  relinquish  an  idea  that  was  ours ;  we  are 
vowed  to  the  pursuit  of  it.  Mr.  Radnor  lighted  on  the 
tracks,  by  dint  of  a  thought  flung  at  his  partner  Mr.  Inch- 
ling's  dread  of  the  Jews.  Inchling  dreaded  Scotchmen  as 
well,  and  Americans,  and  Armenians,  and  Greeks :  latterly 
Germans  hardly  less;  but  his  dread  of  absorption  in  Jewry, 
signifying  subjection,  had  often  precipitated  a  deplorable 


THIIOITGH  THE  VAGUE  TO  THE  INFINITELY  LITTLE      9 

shrug,  in  which  Victor  Radnor  now  perceived  the  skirts  of 
his  idea,  even  to  a  fancy  that  something  of  the  idea  must 
have  struck  Inchling  when  he  shrugged:  the  idea  being 
...  he  had  lost  it  again.  Definition  seemed  to  be  an 
extirpating  enemy  of  this  idea,  or  she  was  by  nature  shy. 
She  was  very  feminine  j  coming  when  she  willed  and  flying 
when  wanted.  Not  until  nigh  upon  the  close  of  his  history 
did  she  return,  fuU-statured  and  embraceable,  to  Victor 
Kadnor. 


CHAPTEH  II 

THROUGH   THE  VAGUE    TO    THE    INFINITELY   LITTLE 

The  fair  dealing  with  readers  demands  of  us,  that  a  nar- 
rative shall  not  proceed  at  slower  pace  than  legs  of  a  man 
in  motion;  and  we  are  still  but  little  more  than  midway 
across  London  Bridge.  But  if  a  man's  mind  is  to  be  taken 
as  a  part  of  him,  the  likening  of  it,  at  an  introductiou,  to 
an  army  on  the  opening  march  of  a  great  campaign,  should 
plead  excuses  for  tardy  forward  movements,  in  considera- 
tion of  the  large  amount  of  matter  you  have  to  review 
before  you  can  at  all  imagine  yourselves  to  have  made  his 
acquaintance.  This  it  is  not  necessary  to  do  when  you  are 
set  astride  the  enchanted  horse  of  the  Tale,  which  leaves 
the  man's  mind  at  home  while  he  performs  the  deeds  be- 
fitting him :  he  can  indeed  be  rapid.  Whether  more  active, 
is  a  question  asking  for  your  notions  of  the  governing 
element  in  the  composition  of  man,  and  of  his  present 
business  here.  The  Tale  inspirits  one's  earlier  ardours, 
when  we  sped  without  baggage,  when  the  Impossible  was 
wings  to  imagination,  and  heroic  sculpture  the  simplest 
act  of  the  chisel.  It  does  not  advance,  'tis  true;  it  drives 
the  whirligig  circle  round  and  round  the  single  existing 
central  point;  but  it  is  enriched  with  applause  of  the  boys 
and  girls  of  both  ages  in  this  land;  and  all  the  English 
critics  heap  their  honours  on  its  brave  old  Simplicity :  — - 
our  national  literary  flag,  which  signalizes  us  while  we 
float,  subsequently  to  flap  above  the  shallows.     One  may 


10  ONE  01*  OtJR   CONQUEROES^ 

sigh  for  it.  An  ill-fortuned  minstrel  who  has  by  fateful 
direction  been  brought  to  see  with  distinctness  that  man  is 
not  as  much  comprised  in  external  features  as  the  monkey, 
will  be  devoted  to  the  task  of  the  fuller  portraiture. 

After  his  ineffectual  catching  at  the  volatile  idea,  Mr. 
Eadnor  found  repose  in  thoughts  of  his  daughter  and  her 
dear  mother.  They  had  begged  him  to  put  on  an  overcoat 
this  day  of  bitter  wind,  or  a  silken  kerchief  for  the  throat. 
Faithful  to  the  Spring,  it  had  been  his  habit  since  boyhood 
to  show  upon  his  person  something  of  the  hue  of  the  vernal 
month,  the  white  of  the  daisied  meadow,  and  although  he 
owned  a  light  overcoat  to  dangle  from  shoulders  at  the 
Opera  crush,  he  declined  to  wear  it  for  protection.  His 
gesture  of  shaking  and  expanding  whenever  the  tender 
request  was  urged  on  him,  signified  a  physical  opposition 
to  the  control  of  garments.  Mechanically  now,  while 
doating  in  fancy  over  the  couple  beseeching  him,  he  loos- 
ened the  button  across  his  defaced  waistcoat,  exposed  a 
large  measure  of  chest  to  flaws  of  a  wind  barbed  on  Nor- 
wegian peaks  by  the  brewers  of  cough  and  catarrh  —  horrid 
women  of  the  whistling  clouts,  in  the  pay  of  our  doctors. 
He  braved  them ;  he  starved  the  profession.  He  was  that 
man  in  fifty  thousand  who  despises  hostile  elements  and 
goes  unpunished,  calmly  erect  among  a  sneezing  and  tum- 
bled host  as  a  lighthouse  overhead  of  breezy  fleets.  The 
coursing  of  his  blood  was  by  comparison  electrical;  he  had 
not  the  sensation  of  cold,  other  than  that  of  an  effort  of 
the  elements  to  arouse  him ;  and  so  quick  was  he,  through 
this  fine  animation,  to  feel,  think,  act,  that  the  three  suc- 
cessive tributaries  of  conduct  appeared  as  an  irreflective 
flash  and  a  gamester's  daring  in  the  vein  to  men  who  had 
no  deep  knowledge  of  him  and  his  lightning  arithmetic 
for  measuring,  sounding,  and  deciding. 

Naturally  he  was  among  the  happiest  of  human  crea- 
tures; he  willed  it  so,  with  consent  of  circumstances;  a 
boisterous  consent,  as  when  votes  are  reckoned  for  a 
favourite  candidate:  excepting  on  the  part  of  a  small 
band  of  black  dissentients  in  a  corner,  a  minute  opaque 
body,  devilish  in  their  irreconcilability,  who  maintain 
their  struggle  to  provoke  discord,  with  a  cry  disclosing 
the  one  error  of  his  youth,  the  sole  bad  step  chargeable 


THROUGH  THE  VAGtJE  1»0  THE  IKFIKITELY  LITTLE      11 

upon  his  antecedents.  But  do  we  listen  to  them  ?  Shall 
we  not  have  them  turned  out?  He  gives  the  sign  for  it; 
and  he  leaves  his  buoying  constituents  to  outroar  them; 
and  he  tells  a  friend  that  it  was  not,  as  one  may  say,  an 
error,  although  an  erratic  step :  but  let  us  explain  to  our 
bosom  friend;  it  was  a  step  quite  unregretted,  gloried  in; 
a  step  deliberately  marked,  to  be  done  again,  were  the 
time  renewed :  it  was  a  step  necessitated  (emphatically)  by 
a  false  preceding  step;  and  having  youth  to  plead  for  it, 
in  the  first  instance,  youth  and  ignorance ;  and  secondly, 
and  0  how  deeply  truly!  Love.  Deep  true  love,  proved 
by  years,  is  the  advocate. 

He  tells  himself  at  the  same  time,  after  lending  ear  to 
the  advocate's  exordium  and  a  favourite  sentence,  that, 
judged  by  the  Powers  (to  them  only  can  he  expose  the 
whole  skeleton-cupboard  of  the  case),  judged  by  those 
clear-sighted  Powers,  he  is  exonerated. 

To  be  exonerated  by  those  awful  Powers,  is  to  be 
approved. 

As  to  that,  there  is  no  doubt:  whom  they,  all-seeing, 
discerning  as  they  do,  acquit  they  justify. 

Whom  they  justify,  they  compliment. 

They,  seeing  all  the  facts,  are  not  unintelligent  of  dis- 
tinctions, as  the  world  is. 

What,  to  them,  is  the  spot  of  the  error?  —  admitting 
it  as  an  error.  They  know  it  for  a  thing  of  convention, 
not  of  Xature.  We  stand  forth  to  plead  it  in  proof  of  an 
adherence  to  Nature's  laws:  we  affirm,  that  far  from  a 
defilement,  it  is  an  illumination  and  stamp  of  nobility. 
On  the  beloved  who  shares  it  with  us,  it  is  a  stamp  of  the 
highest  nobility.  Our  world  has  many  ways  for  signifying 
its  displeasure,  but  it  cannot  brand  an  angel. 

This  was  another  favourite  sentence  of  Love's  grand  ora- 
tion for  the  defence.  So  seductive  was  it  to  the  Powers 
who  sat  in  judgement  on  the  case,  that  they  all,  when  the 
sentence  came,  turned  eyes  upon  the  angel,  and  they 
smiled. 

They  do  not  smile  on  the  condemnable. 

She,  then,  were  he  rebuked,  would  have  strength  to 
uplift  him.  And  who,  calling  her  his  own,  could  be  placed 
in  second  rank  among  the  blissful ! 


12  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

Mr.  Eadnor  could  rationally  say  that  he  was  made  for 
happiness;  he  flew  to  it,  he  breathed,  dispensed  it.  How 
conceive  the  clear-sighted  celestial  Powers  as  opposing  his 
claim  to  that  estate?  Not  they.  He  knew,  for  he  had 
them  safe  in  the  locked  chamber  of  his  breast,  to  yield 
him  subservient  responses.  The  world,  or  Puritanic  mem- 
bers of  it,  had  pushed  him  to  the  trial  once  or  twice  —  or 
had  put  on  an  air  of  doing  so;  creating  a  temporary  dis- 
turbance, ending  in  a  merry  duet  with  his  daughter  Nesta 
Victoria:  a  glorious  trio  when  her  mother  Natalia,  sweet 
lily  that  she  was,  shook  the  rainwater  from  her  cup  and 
followed  the  good  example  to  shine  in  the  sun. 

He  had  a  secret  for  them. 

Nesta's  promising  soprano,  and  her  mother's  contralto, 
and  his  baritone  —  a  true  baritone,  not  so  well  trained  as 
their  accurate  notes  —  should  be  rising  in  spirited  union 
with  the  curtain  of  that  secret:  there  was  matter  for  song 
and  concert,  triumph  and  gratulaticn  in  it.  And  during 
the  whole  passage  of  the  bridge,  he  had  not  once  cast 
thought  on  a  secret  so  palpitating,  the  cause  of  the  morn- 
ing's expedition  and  a  long  year's  prospect  of  the  present 
day  ^  It  seemed  to  have  been  knocked  clean  out  of  it  — 
punctilioed  out,  Penellan  might  say.  Nor  had  any  com- 
binations upon  the  theme  of  business  displaced  it.  Just 
before  the  fall,  the  whole  drama  of  the  unfolding  of  that 
secret  was  brilliant  to  his  eyes  as  a  scene  on  a  stage. 

He  refused  to  feel  any  sensible  bruise  on  his  head,  with 
the  admission  that  he  perhaps  might  think  he  felt  one: 
which  was  virtually  no  more  than  the  feeling  of  a  thought; 
—  what  his  friend  Dr.  Peter  Yatt  would  define  as  feeling 
a  rotifer  astir  in  the  curative  compartment  of  a  homoeo- 
pathic globule :  and  a  playful  fancy  may  do  that  or  any- 
thing. Only,  Sanity  does  not  allow  the  infinitely  little  to 
disturb  us. 

Mr.  Radnor  had  a  quaint  experience  of  the  effects  of  the 
infinitely  little  while  threading  his  way  to  a  haberdasher's 
shop  for  new  white  waistcoats.  Under  the  shadow  of  the 
representative  statue  of  City  Corporations  and  London's 
majesty,  the  figure  of  Royalty,  worshipful  in  its  marbled 
redundancy,  fronting  the  bridge,  on  the  slope  where  the 
seas  of  fish  and  fruit  below  throw  up  a  thin  line  of  their 


THKOUGH  THE  VAGUE  TO  THE  IXFINITELY  LITTLE      13 

drift,  he  stood  contemplating  tlie  not  unamiable,  repose- 
fully -jolly  Guelphic  countenance,  from  the  loose  jowl  to 
the  bent  knee,  as  if  it  were  a  novelty  to  him ;  unwilling 
to  trust  himself  to  the  roadway  he  had  often  traversed, 
equally  careful  that  his  hesitation  should  not  be  seen.  A 
trifle  more  impressible,  he  might  have  imagined  the  smoky 
figure  and  magnum  of  pursiness  barring  the  City  against 
him.  He  could  have  laughed  aloud  at  the  hypocrisy  be- 
hind his  quiet  look  of  provincial  wonderment  at  London's 
sculptor's  art;  and  he  was  partly  tickled  as  well  by  the 
singular  fit  of  timidity  enchaining  him.  Cart,  omnibus, 
cab,  van,  barrow,  donkey-tray,  went  by  in  strings,  broken 
here  and  there,  and  he  could  not  induce  his  legs  to  take 
advantage  of  the  gaps ;  he  listened  to  a  warning  that  he 
would  be  down  again  if  he  tried  it,  among  those  wheels; 
and  his  nerves  clutched  him,  like  a  troop  of  household 
women,  to  keep  him  from  the  hazard  of  an  exposure  to 
the  horrid  crunch,  pitiless  as  tiger's  teeth;  and  we  may 
say  truly,  that  once  down,  or  once  out  of  the  rutted  line, 
you  are  food  for  lion  and  jackal  —  the  forces  of  the  world 
will  have  you  in  their  mandibles. 

An  idea  was  there  too;  but  it  would  not  accept  pursuit. 

"A  pretty  scud  overhead  ?"  said  a  voice  at  his  ear. 

"  For  fine  !  —  to-day  at  least,"  Mr.  Eadnor  affably  replied 
to  a  stranger ;  and  gazing  on  the  face  of  his  friend  Fenel- 
lan,  knew  the  voice,  and  laughed:  "You?"  He  straight- 
ened his  back  immediately  to  cross  the  road,  dismissing 
nervousness  as  a  vapour,  asking,  between  a  cab  and  a  van: 
"Anything  doing  in  the  City?"  For  Mr.  Fenellan's 
proper  station  faced  Westward. 

The  reply  was  deferred  until  they  had  reached  the  pave- 
ment, when  Mr.  Fenellan  said:  "I  '11  tell  you,"  and  looked 
a  dubious  preface,  to  his  friend's  thinking. 

But  it  was  merely  the  mental  inquiry  following  a  glance 
at  mud-spots  on  the  coat. 

"'  We  '11  lunch;  lunch  with  me,  I  must  eat,  tell  me  then,  ' 
said  Mr.  Eadnor,  adding  within  himself:  "Emptiness! 
want  of  food !  "  to  account  for  recent  ejaculations  and 
qualms.     He  had  not  eaten  for  a  good  four  hours. 

Fenellan's  tone  signified  to  his  feverish  sensibility  of 
the  moment,  that  the  matter  was  personal  j  and  the  intima- 


14  ONE  OF  OUB   CONQUEEOES 

tion  of  a  toucli  on  domestic  affairs  caused  sinkings  in  his 
vacuity,  much  as  though  his  heart  were  having  a  fall. 

He  mentioned  the  slip  on  the  bridge,  to  explain  his  need 
to  visit  a  haberdasher's  shop,  and  pointed  at  the  waistcoat. 

Mr.  Fenellan  was  compassionate  over  the  "  Poor  virgin 
of  the  smoky  city !  ^' 

"  They  have  their  ready-made  at  these  shops  —  last  year's 
perhaps,  never  mind,  do  for  the  day,"  said  Mr.  Eadnor, 
impatient  for  eating,  now  that  he  had  spoken  of  it.  "A 
basin  of  turtle;  I  can't  wait.  A  brush  of  the  coat;  mud 
must  be  dry  by  this  time.  Clear  turtle,  I  think,  with  a 
bottle  of  the  Old  Veuve.  Not  bad  news  to  tell  ?  You  like 
that  Old  Veuve  ?  " 

"Too  well  to  tell  bad  news  of  her,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan 
in  a  manner  to  reassure  his  friend,  as  he  intended.  "  You 
would  n't  credit  it  for  the  Spring  of  the  year,  without  the 
spotless  waistcoat  ?  " 

"Something  of  that,  I  suppose."  And  so  saying,  Mr. 
Radnor  entered  the  shop  of  his  quest,  to  be  complimented 
by  the  shopkeeper,  while  the  attendants  climbed  the  ladder 
to  upper 'stages  for  white-waistcoat  boxes,  on  his  being 
the  first  bird  of  the  season ;  which  it  pleased  him  to  hear ; 
for  the  smallest  of  our  gratifications  in  life  could  give  a 
happy  tone  to  this  brightly-constituted  gentleman. 


CHAPTER  III 

OLD   VEUVE 


/_They  were  known  at  the  house  of  the  turtle  and  the 
attractive  Old  Veuve :  a  champagne  of  a  sobered  sweetness, 
of  a  great  year,  a  great  age,  counting  up  to  the  extremer 
maturity  attained  by  wines  of  stilly  depths;  and  their 
worthy  comrade,  despite  the  wanton  sparkles,  for  the  pro- 
moting of  the  state  of  reverential  wonderment  in  jrapture, 
which  an  ancient  wine  will  lead  to,  well  you  woJJ  The 
silly  girly  sugary  crudity  has  given  way  to  womanly 
suavity,  matronly  composure,  with  yet  the  sparkles;  they 


OLD   VEUVE  15 

ascend;  but  hue  and  flavour  tell  of  a  soul  that  has  come  to 
a  lodgement  there.  It  conducts  the  youthful  man  to  tem- 
ples of  dusky  thought:  philosophers  partaking  of  it  are 
drawn  by  the  arms  of  garlanded  nymphs  about  their  necks 
into  the  fathomless  of  inquiries.  It  presents  us  with  a 
sphere,  for  the  pursuit  of  the  thing  we  covet  most.  It 
bubbles  over  mellowness;  it  has,  in  the  marriage  with 
Time,  extracted  a  spice  of  individuality  from  the  saccha- 
rine :  by  miracle,  one  would  say,  were  it  not  for  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  right  noble  issue  of  Time  when  he  and  good 
things  unite.  There  should  be  somewhere  legends  of  him 
and  the  wine-flask.  There  must  be  meanings  to  that  effect 
in  the  Mythology,  awaiting  unravelment.  For  the  subject 
opens  to  deeper  than  cellars,  and  is  a  tree  with  vast  rami- 
fications of  the  roots  and  the  spreading  growth,  whereon 
half  if  not  all  the  mythic  Gods,  Inferior  and  Superior, 
Infernal  and  Celestial,  might  be  shown  sitting  in  concord, 
performing  in  concert,  harmoniously  receiving  sacrificial 
offerings  of  the  black  or  the  white;  and  the  black  not 
extinguishing  the  fairer  fellow.  Tell  us  of  a  certainty 
that  Time  has  embraced  the  wine -flask,  then  may  it  be 
asserted  (assuming  the  great  year  for  the  wine,  i.  e.  com- 
binations above)  that  a  speck  of  the  white  within  us  who 
drink  will  conquer,  to  rise  in  main  ascension  over  volumes 
of  the  black.  It  may,  at  a  greater  venture,  but  confidently, 
be  said  in  plain  speech,  that  the  Bacchus  of  auspicious 
birth  induces  ever  to  the  worship  of  the  loftier  Deities.        % 

Think  as  you  will ;  forbear  to  come  hauling  up  examples  \ 
of  malarious  men,  in  whom  these  pourings  of  the  golden 
rays  of  life  breed  fogs;  and  be  moved,  since  you  are 
scarcely  under  an  obligation  to  hunt  the  meaning,  in  toler- 
ance of  some  dithyrambic  inebriety  of  narration  (quiver- 
ings of  the  reverent  pen)  when  we  find  ourselves  entering 
the  circle  of  a  most  magnetic  polarity.  Take  it  for  not 
worse  than  accompanying  choric  flourishes,  in  accord  with 
Mr.  Victor  Radnor  and  Mr.  Simeon  Fenellan  at  their  sip- y 
ping  of  the  venerable  wine.  ^ 

Seated  in  a  cosy  corner,  near  the  grey  City  window  edged 
with  a  sooty  maze,  they  praised  the  wine,  in  the  neuter 
and  in  the  feminine ;  that  for  the  glass,  this  for  the  widow- 
branded  bottle:  not  as  poets  hymning;  it  was  done  in  thQ 


16  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEKOES 

City  manner,  briefly,  part  pensively,  like  men  travelling 
to  the  utmost  bourne  of  flying  flavour  (a  dell  in  infinite 
aether),  and  still  masters  of  themselves  and  at  home. 

Such  a  wine,  in  its  capturing  permeation  of  us,  insists 
on  being  for  a  time  a  theme. 

"I  wonder !"  said  Mr.  Eadnor,  completely  restored,  eye- 
ing his  half -emptied  second  glass  and  his  boon-fellow. 

"  Low !  "     Mr.  Fenellan  shook  head. 

"  Half  a  dozen  dozen  left  ?  " 

"  Nearer  the  half  of  that.     And  who  's  the  culprit  ?  ^' 

"  Old  days !  They  won't  let  me  have  another  dozen  out 
of  the  house  now." 

"  They  '11  never  hit  on  such  another  discovery  in  their 
cellar,  unless  they  unearth  a  fifth  corner." 

"  I  don't  blame  them  for  making  the  price  prohibitive. 
And  sound  as  ever !  " 

Mr.  Eadnor  watched  the  deliberate  constant  ascent  of 
bubbles  through  their  rose-topaz  transparency.  He  drank. 
That  notion  of  the  dish  of  turtle  was  an  inspiration  of  the 
right:  he  ought  always  to  know  it  for  the  want  of  replen- 
ishment when  such  a  man  as  he  went  quaking.  His  latest 
experiences  of  himself  were  incredible;  but  they  passed, 
as  the  dimples  of  the  stream.  He  finished  his  third  glass. 
The  bottle,  like  the  cellar-wine,  was  at  ebb:  unlike  the 
cellar-wine,  it  could  be  set  flowing  again.  He  prattled,  in 
the  happy  ignorance  of  compulsion: 

''Fenellan,  remember,  I  had  a  sort  of  right  to  the  wine 
—  to  the  best  I  could  get;  and  this  Old  Veuve,  more  than 
any  other,  is  a  bridal  wine!  We  heard  of  Giulia  San- 
fredini's  marriage  to  come  off  with  the  Spanish  Duke,  and 
drank  it  to  the  toast  of  our  little  Nesta's  godmother.  I  've 
told  you.  We  took  the  girl  to  the  Opera,  when  quite  a 
little  one  —  that  high:  —  and  I  declare  to  you,  it  was  mar- 
vellous !  Next  morning  after  breakfast,  she  plants  herself 
in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and  strikes  her  attitude  for 
song,  and  positively,  almost  with  the  Sanfredini's  voice  — 
illusion  of  it,  you  know,  — trills  us  out  more  than  I  could 
have  believed  credible  to  be  recollected  —  by  a  child.  But 
I  've  told  you  the  story.  We  called  her  Fredi  from  that 
day.  I  sent  the  diva,  with  excuses  and  compliments,  a 
nuptial    present  —  necklace,    Koman    gold  work,    Icckct- 


OLD  VEUVE  17 

pendant,  containing  sunny  curl,  and  below  a  fine  pearl; 
really  pretty;  telling  lier  our  grounds  for  the  liberty. 
She  replied,  accepting  the  responsible  oflice;  touching 
letter — ■  we  found  it  so;  framed  in  Fredi's  room,  under  her 
godmother's  photograph.  Fredi  has  another  heroine  now, 
though  she  worships  her  old  one  still;  she  never  abandons 
her  old  ones.     You  've  heard  the  story  over  and  over!  " 

Mr.  Fenellan  nodded;  he  had  a  tenderness  for  the 
garrulity  of  Old  Veuve,  and  for  the  damsel.  Chatter  on 
that  subject  ran  pleasantly  with  their  entertainment. 

Mr.  Kadnor  meanwhile  scribbled,  and  despatched  a  strip 
of  his  iSTote-book,  bearing  a  scrawl  of  orders,  to  his  office. 
He  was  now  fully  himself,  benevolent,  combative,  gay, 
alert  for  amusement  or  the  probeing  of  schemes  to  the 
quick,  weighing  the  good  and  the  bad  in  them  with  his 
fine  touch  on  proportion. 

"  City  dead  flat?  A  monotonous  key;  but  it 's  about  the 
same  as  fetching  a  breath  after  a  run ;  only,  true,  it  lasts 
too  long  —  not  healthy!  Skepsey  will  bring  me  my  let- 
ters. I  was  down  in  the  country  early  this  morning, 
looking  over  the  house,  with  Taplow,  my  architect;  and 
he  speaks  fairly  well  of  the  contractors.  Yes,  down  at 
Lakelands,  and  saw  my  first  lemon  butterfly  in  a  dell  of 
sunshine,  out  of  the  wind,  and  had  half  a  mind  to  catch 
it  for  Fredi ,  — ■  and  should  have  caught  it  myself,  if  I  had ! 
The  truth  is,  we  three  are  country  born  and  bred;  we  pine 
in  London.  Good  for  a  season;  you  know  my  old  feeling. 
They  are  to  learn  the  secret  of  Lakelands  to-morrow.  It 's 
great  fun;  they  think  I  don't  see  they  've  had  their  suspi- 
cion for  some  time.  You  said  —  somebody  said  —  '  the 
eye  of  a  needle  for  what  they  let  slip  of  their  secrets,  and 
the  point  of  it  for  penetrating  yours :  '  —  women.  But  no ; 
my  dear  souls  did  n't  prick  and  bother.  And  they  dealt 
with  a  man  in  armour.  I  carry  them  down  to  Lakelands 
to-morrow,  if  the  City  's  flat," 

"Keeping  a  secret 's  the  lid  on  a  boiling  pot  with  you," 
Mr.  Fenellan  said ;  and  he  mused  on  the  profoundness  of 
the  flavour  at  his  lips. 

"I  do  it." 

"You  do:  up  to  bursting  at  the  breast." 

"  I  keep  it  from  Colney !  " 

2 


18  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

"As  Vesuvius  keeps  it  from  Palmieri  when  shaking 
him." 

"Has  old  Colney  an  idea  of  it?" 

"He  has  been  foretelling  an  eruption  of  an  edifice." 

The  laugh  between  them  subsided  to  pensiveness. 

Mr.  Fenellan's  delay  in  the  delivery  of  his  news  was 
eloquent  to  reveal  the  one  hateful  topic;  and  this  being 
seen,  it  waxed  to  such  increase  of  size  with  the  passing 
seconds^  that  prudeuce  called  for  it. 

"  Come ! "  said  Mr.  Eadnor. 

The  appeal  was  understood. 

"jSTothing  very  particular.  I  came  into  the  City  to  look 
at  a  warehouse  they  want  to  mount  double  guard  on. 
Your  idea  of  the  fireman's  night-patrol  and  wires  has  done 
wonders  for  the  ofiice." 

"I  guarantee  the  City  if  all  my  directions  are  followed." 

Mr.  Fenellan's  remark,  that  he  had  nothing  very  partic- 
ular to  tell,  reduced  it  to  the  mere  touch  upon  a  vexatious 
matter,  which  one  has  to  endure  in  the  ears  at  times ;  but 
it  may  be  postponed.  So  Mr.  Radnor  encouraged  him  to 
talk  of  an  Insurance  Office  Investment.  Where  it  is  all 
bog  and  mist,  as  in  the  City  to-day,  the  maxim  is,  not  to 
take  a  step,  they  agreed.  Whether  it  was  attributable  to 
an  unconsumed  glut  of  the  markets,  or  apprehensions  of  a 
panic,  had  to  be  considered.  Both  gentlemen  were  angry 
with  the  Birds  on  the  flags  of  foreign  nations,  which  would 
not  imitate  a  sawdust  Lion  to  couch  reposefuUy.  Inces- 
santly they  scream  and  sharpen  talons. 

"They  crack  the  City  bubbles  and  bladders,  at  all 
events,"  Mr.  Fenellan  said.  "But  if  we  let  our  journals 
go  on  making  use  of  them,  in  the  shape  of  sham  hawks 
overhead,  we  shall  pay  for  their  one  good  day  of  the  game 
with  our  loss  of  the  covey.  An  unstable  London  's  no 
world's  market-place." 

"  No,  no ;  it 's  a  niggardly  national  purse,  not  the  jour- 
nals," Mr.  Radnor  said.  "The  journals  are  trading 
engines.  Panics  are  grist  to  them;  so  are  wars;  but  they 
do  their  duty  in  warning  the  taxpayer  and  rousing  Parlia- 
ment. Dr.  Schlesien  's  right:  we  go  on  believing  that  our 
God  Neptune  will  do  everything  for  us,  and  won't  see  that 
Steam  has  paralyzed  his  Trident :  —  good !    You  and  Colney 


OLD  VEUVE  19 

are  hard  on  Schlesien  —  or  at  him,  I  should  say.  He  's 
right:  if  we  won't  learn  that  we  have  become  Continentals, 
we  shall  be  marched  over.     Laziness,  cowardice,  he  says." 

"Oh,  be  hanged!"  interrupted  Fenellan.  "As  much  of 
the  former  as  you  like.  He  's  right  about  our  '  individual- 
ismus  '  being  another  name  for  selfishness,  and  showing  the 
usual  deficiency  in  external  features;  it 's  an  individualism 
of  all  of  a  pattern,  as  when  a  molD  cuts  its  lucky,  each 
fellow  his  own  way.  AVell,  then,  conscript  them,  and 
they  '11  be  all  of  a  better  pattern.  The  only  thing  to  do, 
and  the  cheapest.  By  heaven!  it's  the  only  honourable 
thing  to  do." 

Mr.  Radnor  disapproved.     "No  conscription  here." 

"Not  till  you've  got  the  drop  of  poison  in  your  blood, 
in  the  form  of  an  army  landed.  That  will  teach  you  to 
catch  at  the  drug." 

"No,  Fenellan!  Besides,  they've  got  to  land.  I  guar- 
antee a  trusty  army  and  navy  under  a  contract,  at  two- 
thirds  of  the  present  cost.  We  '11  start  a  National  Defence 
Insurance  Company  after  the  next  panic." 

"During,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan,  and  there  was  a  flutter  of 
laughter  at  the  unobtrusive  hint  for  seizing  Dame  England 
in  the  mood. 

Both  dropped  a  sigh. 

"But  you  must  try  and  run  down  with  us  to  Lakelands 
to-morrow,"  Mr.  Radnor  resumed  on  a  cheerfuller  theme. 
"  You  have  not  yet  seen  all  I  've  done  there.  And  it 's  a 
castle  with  a  drawbridge :  no  exchangeing  of  visits,  as  we 
did  at  Craye  Farm  and  at  Creckholt;  we  are  there  for 
country  air ;  we  don't  court  neighbours  at  all  —  perhaps 
the  elect;  it  will  depend  on  Nataly's  wishes.  We  can 
accommodate  our  Concert-set,  and  about  thirty  or  forty 
more,  for  as  long  as  they  like.  You  see,  that  was  my 
intention  —  to  be  independent  of  neighbouring  society. 
Madame  Callet  guarantees  dinners  or  hot  suppers  for  eighty 
— ■  and  Armandine  is  the  last  person  to  be  recklessly  boast- 
ing. —  When  was  it  I  was  thinking  last  of  Armandine  ?  " 
He  asked  himself  that,  as  he  rubbed  at  the  back  of  his 
head. 

i\lr.  Fenellan  was  reading  his  friend's  character  by  the 
light  of  his  remarks  and  in  opposition  to  them,  after  the 


20  ONE  OF  OUE  CONQUEEOHS 

critical  fashion  of  intimates  who  know  as  well  as  hear: 
but  it  was  amiably  and  trippingly,  on  the  dance  of  the 
wine  in  his  veins. 

His  look,  however,  was  one  that  reminded;  and  Mr. 
Eadnor  cried :  " Now !  whatever  it  is !  " 

''I  had  an  interview:  —  I  assure  you,"  Mr.  Fenellan 
interposed  to  pacify:  ^'the  smallest  of  trifles,  and  to  be 
expected :  I  thought  you  ought  to  know  it :  —  an  interview 
with  her  lawyer;  office  business,  increase  of  Insurance  on 
one  of  her  City  warehouses." 

"Speak  her  name,  speak  the  woman's  name;  we  're  talk- 
ing like  a  pair  of  conspirators,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Eadnor. 

"He  informed  me  that  Mrs.  Burman  has  heard  of  the 
new  mansion." 

"  My  place  at  Lakelands  ?  " 

Mr.  Radnor's  clear-water  eyes  hardened  to  stony  as  their 
vision  ran  along  the  consequences  of  her  having  heard  it. 

"  Earlier  this  time ! "  he  added,  thrummed  on  the  table, 
and  thumped  with  knuckles.  "I  make  my  stand  at  Lake- 
lands for  good !     Nothing  mortal  moves  me !  " 

"  That  butler  of  hers  —  " 

"  Jarniman,  you  mean:  he  's  her  butler,  yes,  the  scoun- 
drel —  h'm  —  pah!  Heaven  forgive  me !  she  's  an  honest 
woman  at  least;  I  would  n't  rob  her  of  her  little :  fifty -nine 
or  sixty  next  September,  fifteenth  of  the  month!  with  the 
constitution  of  a  broken  drug-bottle,  poor  soul!  She 
hears  everything  from  Jarniman :  he  catches  wind  of  every- 
thing. All  foreseen,  Eenellan,  foreseen.  I  have  made 
my  stand  at  Lakelands,  and  there  's  my  flag  till  it 's  hauled 
down  over  Victor  Radnor.  London  kills  Nataly  as  well 
as  Fredi  —  and  me :  that  is  —  I  can  use  the  words  to  you  — 
I  get  back  to  primal  innocence  in  the  country.  We  all 
three  have  the  feeling.  You  're  a  man  to  understand. 
My  beasts,  and  the  wild  flowers,  hedge-banks,  and  stars. 
Fredi's  poetess  will  tell  you.  Quiet  waters  reflecting.  I 
should  feel  it  in  Paris  as  well,  though  they  have  nightin- 
gales in  their  Bois.  It 's  the  rustic  I  want  to  bathe  me ; 
and  I  had  the  feeling  at  school,  biting  at  Horace.  Well, 
this  is  my  Sabine  Farm,  rather  on  a  larger  scale,  for  the 
sake  of  friends.  Come,  and  pure  air,  water  from  the 
springs,  walks  and  rides  in  lanes,  high  sand-lanes;  Nataly 


THE   SECOND  BOTTLE  21 

loves  them;  Fredi  worships  the  old  roots  of  trees:  she 
calls  them  the  faces  of  those  weedy  sandy  lanes.  And  the 
two  dear  souls  on  their  own  estate,  Fenellan !  And  their 
poultry,  cows,  cream.  And  a  certain  influence  one  has 
in  the  country  socially.  I  make  my  stand  on  a  home  — 
not  empty  punctilio." 

Mr.  Fenellan  repeated,  in  a  pause,  "Punctilio,"  and  not 
emphatically. 

"Don't  bawl  the  word,"  said  Mr.  Kadnor,  at  the  drum 
of  whose  ears  it  rang  and  sang.  "Here  in  the  City  the 
woman's  harmless;  and  here,"  he  struck  his  breast.  "But 
she  can  shoot  and  hit  another  through  me.  Ah,  the  witch !  — 
poor  wretch!  poor  soul!  Only,  she  's  malignant.  I  could 
swear!  But  Colney  's  right  for  once  in  something  he  says 
about  oaths  — '  dropping  empty  buckets,'  or  something." 

"  *  Empty  buckets  to  haul  up  impotent  demons,  whom 
we  have  to  pay  as  heavily  as  the  ready  devil  himself,'  " 
Mr.  Fenellan  supplied  the  phrase.  "  Only,  the  moment  old 
Colney  moralizes,  he  's  what  the  critics  call  sententious. 
We  've  all  a  parlous  lot  too  much  pulpit  in  us." 

"Come,  Fenellan,  I  don't  think  .  .  ." 

"  Oh  yes,  but  it 's  true  of  me  too." 

"You  reserve  it  for  your  enemies."  ^ 

"I  'd  like  to  distract  it  a  bit  from  the  biggest  of  'em." 
He  pointed  finger  at  the  region  of  the  heart. 

"Here  we  have  Skepsey,"  said  Mr.  Radnor,  observing 
the  rapid  approach  of  a  lean  small  figure,  that  in  about  the 
time  of  a  straight-aimed  javelin's  cast,  shot  from  the  door- 
way to  the  table. 


CHAPTER  ly 

THE   SECOND    BOTTLE 


This  little  dart  of  a  man  came  to  a  stop  at  a  respectful 
distance  from  his  master,  having  the  look  of  an  arrested 
needle  in  mechanism.  His  lean  slip  of  face  was  an  illumi- 
nation of  vivacious  grey  from  the  quickest  of  prominent 
large  eyes.     He  placed  his  master's  letters  legibly  on  the 


22  OKE  OF  OUR  COKQUEEORS 

table,  and  fell  to  his  posture  of  attention,  alert  on  stiff  legs, 
the  hands  like  sucking-cubs  at  play  with  one  another. 

Skepsey  waited  for  Mr.  Fenellan  to  notice  him. 

"  How  about  the  Schools  for  Boxing  ?  "  that  gentleman 
said. 

Deploring  in  motion  the  announcement  he  had  to  make, 
Skepsey  replied :  '^  I  have  a  difficulty  in  getting  the  plan 
treated  seriously :  —  a  person  of  no  station  :  —  it  does  not 
appear  of  national  importance.  Ladies  are  against.  They 
decline  their  signatures;  and  ladies  have  great  influence, 
because  of  the  blood ;  which  we  know  is  very  slight,  rather 
healthy  than  not ;  and  it  could  be  proved  for  the  advantage 
of  the  frailer  sex.  They  seem  to  be  unaware  of  their  own 
interests  —  ladies.  The  contention  all  around  us  is  with 
ignorance.  My  plan  is  written ;  I  have  shown  it,  and  sig- 
natures of  gentlemen,  to  many  of  our  City  notables  —  favour- 
able in  most  cases  :  gentlemen  of  the  Stock  Exchange  highly. 
The  clergy  and  the  medical  profession  are  quite  with  me." 

*'  The  surgical,  perhaps  you  mean?  " 

"Also,  sir.     The  clergy  strongly." 

"  On  the  grounds  of  —  what,  Skepsey?  " 

"  Morality.  I  have  fully  explained  to  them :  —  after  his 
work  at  the  desk  all  day,  the  young  City  clerk  wants 
refreshment.  He  needs  it,  must  have  it.  I  propose  to  catch 
him  on  his  way  to  his  music-halls  and  other  places,  and  take 
him  to  one  of  our  establishments.  A  short  term  of  instruc- 
tion, and  he  would  find  a  pleasure  in  the  gloves ;  it  would 
delight  him  more  than  excesses  —  beer  and  tobacco.  The 
female  in  her  right  place,  certainly."  Skepsey  supplicated 
honest  interpretation  of  his  hearer,  and  pursued :  "  It  would 
improve  his  physical  strength,  at  the  same  time  add  to  his 
sense  of  personal  dignity." 

^*  Would  you  teach  females  as  well  —  to  divert  them  from 
their  frivolities  ?  " 

"  That  would  have  to  be  thought  over,  sir.  It  would  be 
better  for  them  than  using  their  nails." 

"I  don^t  know,  Skepsey:  I'm  rather  a  Conservative 
there." 

"  Yes ;  with  regard  to  the  female,  sir :  I  confess,  my  scheme 
does  not  include  them.  They  dance;  that  is  a  healthy 
exercise.    One  has  only  to  say,  that  it  does  not  add  to  the 


THE  SECOND  BOTTLEi  2S 

national  force,  in  case  of  emergency.  I  look  to  that.  And 
I  am  particular  in  proposing  an  exercise  independent  of  —  I 
have  to  say  —  sex.  Not  that  there  is  harm  in  sex.  But  we 
are  for  training.     I  hope  my  meaning  is  clear?  " 

"  Quite.  You  would  have  boxing  with  the  gloves  to  be  a 
kind  of  monastic  recreation. '^ 

"  Recreation  is  the  word,  sir ;  I  have  often  admired  it," 
said  Skepsey,  blinking,  unsure  of  the  signification  of 
monastic. 

*^  I  was  a  bit  of  a  boxer  once,"  Mr.  Fenellan  said,  conscious 
of  height  and  breadth  in  measuring  the  wisp  of  a  figure 
before  him. 

"  Something  might  be  done  with  you  still,  sir." 

Skepsey  paid  him  the  encomium  after  a  respectful  sum- 
mary of  his  gifts  in  a  glimpse.     Mr.  Fenellan  bowed  to  him. 

Mr.  Eadnor  raised  head  from  the  notes  he  was  pencilling 
upon  letters  perused. 

*'Skepsey's  craze:  regeneration  of  the  English  race  by 
boxing  —  nucleus  of  a  national  army  ?  " 

*^To  face  an  enemy  at  close  quarters — it  teaches  that, 
sir.  I  have  always  been  of  opinion,  that  courage  may  be 
taught.  I  do  not  say  heroism.  And  setting  aside  for  a 
moment  thoughts  of  an  army,  we  create  more  valuable  citi- 
zens. Protection  to  the  weak  in  streets  and  by-places  : — ■ 
shocking  examples  of  ruffians  maltreating  women,  in  view 
of  a  crowd." 

"  One  strong  man  is  an  overmatch  for  your  mob,"  said  Mr. 
Fenellan. 

Skepsey  toned  his  assent  to  the  diminishing  thinness 
where  a  suspicion  of  the  negative  begins  to  wind  upon  a 
distant  horn. 

"  Knowing  his  own  intentions ;  and  before  an  ignorant 
mob :  —  strong,  you  say,  sir  ?  I  venture  my  word  that  a 
decent  lad,  with  science,  would  beat  him.  It  is  a  question 
^of  the  study  and  practice  of  first  principles." 

"  If  you  were  to  see  a  rascal  giant  mishandling  a 
woman  ?  " 

Skepsey  conjured  the  scene  by  bending  his  head  and  peer- 
ing abstractedly,  as  if  over  spectacles. 

"I  would  beg  him  to  abstain,  for  his  own  sake." 

Mr.  Fenellan  knew  that  the  little  fellow  was  not  boasting. 


24  ONE   OF   OUR   COKQUEROES 

"  My  brother  Dartrey  had  a  lesson  or  two  from  you  in  the 
first  principles,  I  think  ?  " 

' '  Captain  Dartrey  is  an  athlete,  sir :  exceedingly  quick  and 
clever  ;  a  hard  boxer  to  beat." 

'^  You  will  not  call  him  captain  when  you  see  him  ;  he  has 
dismissed  the  army." 

"I  much  regret  it,  sir,  much,  that  we  have  lost  him. 
Captain  Dartrey  Fenellan  was  a  beautiful  fencer.  He  gave 
me  some  instruction;  unhappily,  I  have  to  acknowledge, 
too  late.  It  is  a  beautiful  art.  Captain  Dartrey  says,  the 
French  excel  at  it.  But  it  asks  for  a  weapon,  which  nature 
has  not  given :  whereas  the  fists  .  .  ." 

"So,"  Mr.  Eadnor  handed  notes  and  papers  to  Skepsey: 
"  no  sign  of  life  ?  " 

"  It  is  not  yet  seen  in  the  City,  sir." 

"  The  first  principles  of  commercial  activity  have  retreated 
to  earth's  maziest  penetralia,  where  no  tides  are  !  —  is  it  not 
so,  Skepsey  ?  "  said  Mr.  Fenellan,  whose  initiative  and  exu- 
berance in  loquency  had  been  restrained  by  a  slight  oppres- 
sion, known  to  guests ;  especially  to  the  guest  in  the  earlier 
process  of  his  magnification  and  illumination  by  virtue  of  a 
grand  old  wine;  and  also  when  the  news  he  has  to  com- 
municate may  be  a  stir  to  unpleasant  heaps.  The  shining 
lips  and  eyes  of  his  florid  face  now  proclaimed  speech,  with 
his  Puckish  fancy  jack-o'-lanterning  over  it.  "Business 
hangs  to  swing  at  every  City  door,  like  a  rag-shop  Doll,  on 
the  gallows  of  overproduction.  Stocks  and  Shares  are 
hollow  nuts  not  a  squirrel  of  the  lot  would  stop  to  crack  for 
sight  of  the  milky  kernel  mouldered  to  beard.  Percentage, 
like  a  cabman  without  a  fare,  has  gone  to  sleep  inside  his 
vehicle.  Dividend  may  just  be  seen  by  tiptoe  stockholders, 
twinkling  heels  over  the  far  horizon.  Too  true!  —  and  our 
merchants,  brokers,  bankers,  projectors  of  Companies,  parade 
our  City  to  remind  us  of  the  poor  steamed  fellows  trooping 
out  of  the  burst-boiler-room  of  the  big  ship  Leviathan,  in 
old  years;  a  shade  or  two  paler  than  the  crowd  o'  the* 
passengers,  apparently  alive  and  conversible,  but  corpses,  all 
of  them  to  lie  their  length  in  fifteen  minutes." 

"And  you,  Fenellan?"  cried  his  host,  inspired  for  a 
second  bottle  by  the  lovely  nonsense  of  a  voluble  friend 
wound  up  to  the  mark. 


THE  SECOKB  BOTTLE  S5 

"  Doctor  of  the  ship !  with  this  prescription ! "  Mr. 
Fenellan  held  up  his  glass. 

"  Empty  ?  " 

Mr.  FenellaD  made  it  completely  so.  "  Confident ! "  he 
affirmed. 

An  order  was  tossed  to  the  waiter,  and  both  gentlemen 
screwed  their  lips  in  relish  of  his  heavy  consent  to  score  oif 
another  bottle  from  the  narrow  list. 

**  At  the  office  in  forty  minutes/'  Skepsey's  master  nodded 
to  him  and  shot  him  forth,  calling  him  back  :  "  By  the  way. 
in  case  a  man  named  Jarniman  should  ask  to  see  me,  you 
turn  him  to  the  rightabout." 

Skepsey  repeated :  "  Jarniman !  "  and  flew. 

"A  good  servant/'  Mr.  Eadnor  said.  *^Few  of  us  think 
of  our  country  so  much,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  specific 
he  offers.  Colney  has  impressed  him  somehow  immensely : 
he  studies  to  write  too ;  pushes  to  improve  himself ;  alto- 
gether a  worthy  creature." 

The  second  bottle  appeared.  The  waiter,  in  sincerity  a 
reluctant  executioner,  heightened  his  part  for  the  edification 
of  the  admiring  couple. 

"Take  heart,  Benjamin,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan;  '^t's  only 
the  bottle  dies ;  and  we  are  the  angels  above  to  receive  the 
spirit." 

"  I  'm  thinking  of  the  house,"  Benjamin  replied.  He  told 
them  that  again. 

"  It 's  the  loss  of  the  fame  of  having  the  wine,  that  he 
mourns.  But,  Benjamin,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan,  ''the  fame 
enters  into  the  partakers  of  it,  and  we  spread  it,  and  per- 
petuate it  for  you." 

"That  don't  keep  a  house  upright,"  returned  Benjamin. 

Mr.  Fenellan  murmured  to  himself:  "True  enough,  it's 
elegy,  though  we  perform  it  through  a  trumpet ;  and  there  's 
not  a  doubt  of  our  being  down  or  having  knocked  the  world 
down,  if  we  're  loudly  praised." 

Benjamin  waited  to  hear  approval  sounded  on  the  lips : 
uncertain  as  a  woman  is  a  wine  of  ticklish  age.  The 
gentlemen  nodded,  and  he  retired. 

A  second  bottle,  just  as  good  as  the  first,  should,  one 
thoughtlessly  supposes,  procure  us  a  similar  reposeful  and 
excursive  enjoyment,  as  of  men  lying  on  their  backs  and 


26  ONE  OF   OUR   COKQUERORg 

flying  imagination  like  a  kite.  The  effect  was  quite  other. 
Mr.  Kadnor  drank  hastily  and  spoke  with  heat :  "  You  told 
me  all  ?  tell  me  that  !  "  " 

Mr.  Fenellan  gathered  himself  together ;  he  sipped,  and 
relaxed  his  bracing.  But  there  really  was  a  bit  more  to 
tell :  not  much,  was  it  ?  Not  likely  to  puff  a  gale  on  the 
voluptuous  indolence  of  a  man  drawn  along  by  Nereids  over 
sunny  sea- waves  to  behold  the  birth  of  the  Foam-Goddess  ? 
"According  to  Carling,  her  lawyer;  that  is,  he  hints  she 
meditates  a  blow." 

"  Mrs.  Burman  means  to  strike  a  blow  ?  " 

"  The  lady.^' 

"  Does  he  think  I  fear  any  —  does  he  mean  a  blow  with 
a  weapon  ?     Is  it  a  legal  .  .  .  ?     At  last  ?    Fenellan !  " 

"So  I  fancied  I  understood." 

"  But  can  the  good  woman  dream  of  that  as  a  blow  to 
strike  and  hurt,  for  a  punishment  ?  —  that 's  her  one  aim." 

"  She  may  have  her  hallucinations." 

"  But  a  blow  —  what  a  word  for  it !  But  it 's  life  to  us  ! 
life  !  It 's  the  blow  we  Ve  prayed  for.  Why,  you  know  it ! 
Let  her  strike,  we  bless  her.  We  've  never  had  an  ill  feel- 
ing to  the  woman  ;  utterly  the  contrary  —  pity,  pity,  pity  ! 
Let  her  do  that,  we  're  at  her  feet,  my  Nataly  and  I.  If 
you  knew  what  my  poor  girl  suffers !  She  's  a  saint  at  the 
stake.  Chiefly  on  behalf  of  her  family.  Fenellan,  you  may 
have  a  sort  of  guess  at  my  fortune  :  I  '11  own  to  luck ;  I  put 
in  a  claim  to  courage  and  calculation  .  .  ." 

"  You  've  been  a  bulwark  to  your  friends." 

"All,  Fenellan,  all  —  stocks,  shares,  mines,  companies, 
industries  at  home  and  abroad  —  all,  at  a  sweep,  to  have 
the  woman  strike  that  blow  !  Cheerfully  would  I  begin  to 
build  a  fortune  over  again  —  singing !  Ha !  the  woman  has 
threatened  it  before.     It 's  probably  feline  play  with  us." 

His  chin  took  support,  he  frowned. 

"  You  may  have  touched  her." 

"  She  won't  be  touched,  and  she  won't  be  driven.  What 's 
the  secret  of  her  ?  I  can't  guess,  I  never  could.  She  's  a 
riddle." 

"  Riddles  with  wigs  and  false  teeth  have  to  be  taken  and 
shaken  for  the  ardently  sought  secret  to  reveal  itself,"  said 
Mr.  Fenellan. 


THE  SECOND  BOTTLE  27 

His  picture,  with  the  skeleton  issue  of  any  shaking,  smote 
Mr.  Kadnor's  eyes,  they  turned  over.  "  Oh  !  —  her  charms  ! 
She  had  a  desperate  belief  in  her  beauty.  The  woman  's 
undoubtedly  charitable  ;  she  's  not  without  a  mind  —  sort  of 
mind  :  well,  it  shows  no  crack  till  it 's  put  to  use.  Heart ! 
yes,  against  me  she  has  plenty  of  it.  They  say  she  used  to 
be  courted  ;  she  talked  of  it :  '  my  courtiers,  Mr.  Victor ! ' 
There,  heaven  forgive  me,  I  wouldn't  mock  at  her  to 
another." 

"It  looks  as  if  she  were  only  inexorably  human,"  said 
Mr.  Fenellan,  crushing  a  delicious  gulp  of  the  wine,  that 
foamed  along  the  channel  to  ilavour.  "  We  read  of  the 
tester  of  a  bandit-bed ;  and  it  flattened  unwary  recumbents 
to  pancakes.  An  escape  from  the  like  of  that  seems  plead- 
able, should  be :  none  but  the  drowsy  would  fail  to  jump 
out  and  run,  or  the  insane." 

Mr.  Kadnor  was  taken  with  the  illustration  of  his  case. 
"  For  the  sake  of  my  sanity,  it  was  !  to  preserve  my  .  .  .  but 
any  word  makes  nonsense  of  it.  Could  —  I  must  ask  you  — 
could  any  sane  man — you  were  abroad  in  those  days,  hor- 
rible days  !  and  never  met  her  :  I  say,  could  you  consent  to 
be  tied  —  I  admit  the  vow,  ceremony,  so  forth  —  tied  to  —  I 
was  barely  twenty-one  :  I  put  it  to  you,  Eenellan,  was  it  in 
reason  an  engagement  —  which  is,  I  take  it,  a  mutual  plight 
of  faith,  in  good  faith ;  that  is,  with  capacity  on  both  sides 
to  keep  the  engagement :  between  the  man  you  know  I  was 
in  youth  and  a  more  than  middle-aged  woman  crazy  up  to 
the  edge  of  the  cliff — as  Colney  says  half  the  world  is,  and 
she  positively  is  when  her  spite  is  roused.  No,  Fenellan, 
I  have  nothing  on  my  conscience  with  regard  to  the  woman. 
She  had  wealth  :  I  left  her  not  one  penny  the  worse  for  — 
but  she  was  not  one  to  reckon  it,  I  own.  She  could  be  gen- 
erous, was,  with  her  money.  If  she  had  struck  this  blow  — 
I  know  she  thought  of  it :  or  if  she  would  strike  it  now,  I 
could  not  only  forgive  her,  I  could  beg  forgiveness." 

A  sight  of  that  extremity  fetched  prickles  to  his  forehead. 

*'  You  Ve  borne  your  part  bravely,  my  friend." 

"  I !  "  Mr.  Radnor  shrugged  at  mention  of  his  personal 
burdens.  "  Praise  my  Nataly  if  you  like  !  Made  for  one 
another,  if  ever  two  in  this  world  !  You  know  us  both,  and 
do  you  doubt  it  ?     The  sin  would  have  been  for  us  two  to 


28  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQITEBORS 

meet  and  —  but  enough  when  I  say,  that  I  am  she,  she  me, 
till  death  and  beyond  it :  that 's  my  firm  faith.  Nataly 
teaches  me  the  religion  of  life,  and  you  may  learn  what 
that  is  when  you  fall  in  love  with  a  woman.  Eighteen  — 
nineteen  —  twenty  years  !  " 

Tears  fell  from  him,  two  drops.  He  blinked,  bugled  in 
his  throat,  eyed  his  watch,  and  smiled :  "  The  finishing 
glass  !  We  should  have  had  to  put  Colney  to  bed.  Few 
men  stand  their  wine.  You  and  I  are  not  lamed  by  it ;  we 
can  drink  and  do  business  :  my  first  experience  in  the  City 
was,  that  the  power  to  drink  —  keeping  a  sound  head  — 
conduces  to  the  doing  of  business." 

"  It 's  a  pleasant  way  of  instructing  men  to  submit  to 
their  conqueror." 

"  If  it  doubles  the  energies,  mind." 

"  Not  if  it  fiddles  inside.  I  confess  to  that  effect  upon 
me.  I  *ve  a  waltz  going  on,  like  the  snake  with  the  tail  in 
his  mouth,  eternal  j  and  it  won't  allow  of  a  thought  upon 
Investments." 

"Consult  me  to-morrow,"  said  Mr.  Eadnor,  somewhat 
pained  for  having  inconsiderately  misled  the  man  he 
had  hitherto  helpfully  guided.  "You've  looked  at  the 
warehouse  ?  " 

"  That 's  performed." 

"  Make  a  practice  of  getting  over  as  much  of  your  business 
in  the  early  morning  as  you  well  can." 

Mr.  Eadnor  added  hints  of  advice  to  a  frail  humanity: 
he  was  indulgent,  the  giant  spoke  in  good  fellowship.  It 
would  have  been  to  have  strained  his  meaning,  for  purposes 
of  sarcasm  upon  him,  if  one  had  taken  him  to  boast  of  a 
personal  exemption  from  our  common  weakness'. 

He  stopped,  and  laughed  :  "  Now  I  'm  pumping  my  pulpit 
—  eh  ?  You  come  with  us  to  Lakelands.  I  drive  the  ladies 
down  to  my  office,  ten  a.m.:  if  it's  fine;  train  half-past. 
We  take  a  basket.  By  the  way,  I  had  no  letter  from  Dartrey 
last  mail." 

"  He  has  buried  his  wife.     It  happens  to  some  men." 

Mr.  Radnor  stood  gazing.  He  asked  for  the  name  of  the 
place  of  the  burial.  He  heard  without  seizing  it.  A  simu- 
lacrum spectre-spark  of  hopefulness  shot  up  in  his  imagina- 
tion, glowed  and  quivered,  darkening  at  the  utterance  of  the 


THE   SECOND   BOTTLE  29 

Dutch  syllables,  leaving  a  tinge  of  witless  envy.  Dartrey 
Fenellan  had  buried  the  wife  whose  behaviour  vexed  and 
dishonoured  him :  and  it  was  in  Africa !  One  would  have 
to  go  to  Africa  to  be  free  of  the  galling.  But  Dartrey  had 
gone,  and  he  was  free !  —  The  strange  faint  freaks  of  our 
sensations  when  struck  to  leap  and  throw  off  their  load  after 
a  long  affliction,  play  these  disorderly  pranks  on  the  brain  ; 
and  they  are  faint,  but  they  come  in  numbers,  they  are 
recurring,  always  in  ambush.  We  do  not  speak  of  them  : 
we  have  not  words  to  stamp  the  indefinite  things  ;  generally 
we  sliould  leave  them  unspoken  if  we  had  the  words  ;  we 
know  them  as  out  of  reason:  they  haunt  us,  pluck  at  us, 
fret  us,  nevertheless. 

Dartrey  free,  he  was  relieved  of  the  murderous  drama 
incessantly  in  the  mind  of  shackled  men. 

It  seemed  like  one  of  the  miracles  of  a  divine  interven- 
tion, that  Dartrey  should  be  free,  suddenly  free ;  and  free 
while  still  a  youngish  man.  He  was  in  himself  a  wonderful 
fellow,  the  pick  of  his  country  for  vigour,  gallantry,  trusti- 
ness, high-mindedness ;  his  heavenly  good  fortune  decked 
him  as  a  prodigy. 

"  Xo  harm  to  the  head  from  that  fall  of  yours  ? "  Mr. 
Fenellan  said. 

"  ]Srone.''  Mr.  Kadnor  withdrew  his  hand  from  head  to 
hat,  clapped  it  on  and  cried  cheerily :  "  Now  to  business  ; " 
as  men  may,  who  have  confidence  in  their  ability  to  con- 
centrate an  instant  attention  upon  the  substantial.  "  Yon 
dine  with  us.  The  usual  Quartet :  Peridon,  Pempton,  Col- 
ney,  Yatt,  or  Catkin :  Priscilla  Graves  and  Nataly :  the  Eev. 
Septimus :  Cormyn  and  his  wife :  Young  Dudley  Sowerby 
and  I  —  flutes:  he  has  precision,  as  naughty  Fredi  said, 
when  some  one  spoke  of  expression.  In  the  course  of  the 
evening.  Lady  Grace,  perhaps :  you  like  her." 

"Human  nature  in  the  upper  circle  is  particularly 
likeable." 

"Fenellan,"  said  Mr.  Radnor,  emboldened  to  judge  hope- 
fully of  his  fortunes  by  mere  pressure  of  the  thought  of 
Dartrey's,  "  I  put  it  to  you  :  would  you  say,  that  there  is 
anything  this  time  behind  your  friend  Carling's  report  ?  " 

Although  it  had  not  been  phrased  as  a  report,  Ivlr.  Fenel- 
lan's  answering  look  and  gesture,  and  a  run  of  indiscrimi- 


80  OKE   OF   OUR   CONQUEROKS 

nate  words,  enrolled  it  in  that  form,  greatly  to  the  inspiriting 
of  Mr.  Kadnor. 

Old  Veuve  in  one,  to  the  soul  of  Old  Veuve  in  the  other, 
they  recalled  a  past  day  or  two,  touched  the  skies ;  and 
merriment  or  happiness  in  the  times  behind  them  held  a 
mirror  to  the  present :  or  the  hour  of  the  reverse  of  happi- 
ness worked  the  same  effect  by  contrast :  so  that  notions  of 
the  singular  election  of  us  by  Dame  Fortune,  sprang  like 
vinous  bubbles.  For  it  is  written,  that  however  powerful 
you  be,  you  shall  not  take  the  Winegod  on  board  to  enter- 
tain him  as  a  simple  passenger ;  and  you  may  captain  your 
vessel,  you  may  pilot  it,  and  keep  to  your  reckonings,  and 
steer  for  all  the  ports  you  have  a  mind  to,  even  to  doing 
profitable  exchange  with  Armenian  and  Jew,  and  still  you 
shall  do  the  something  more,  which  proves  that  the  Winegod 
is  on  board :  he  is  the  pilot  of  your  blood  if  not  the  captain 
of  your  thoughts. 

Mr.  Fenellan  was  unused  to  the  copious  outpouring  of 
Victor  Radnor's  confidences  upon  his  domestic  affairs ;  and 
the  unwonted  excitement  of  Victor's  manner  of  speech 
would  have  perplexed  him,  had  there  not  been  such  a 
fiddling  of  the  waltz  inside  him. 

Payment  for  the  turtle  and  the  bottles  of  Old  Veuve  was 
performed  apart  with  Benjamin,  while  Simeon  Fenellan 
strolled  out  of  the  house,  questioning  a  tumbled  mind  as  to 
what  description  of  suitable  entertainment,  which  would  be 
dancing  and  flirting  and  fal-lallery  in  the  season  of  youth, 
London  City  could  provide  near  meridian  hours  for  a  man 
of  middle  age  carrying  his  bottle  of  champagne,  like  a  guest 
of  an  old-fashioned  wedding-breakfast.  For  although  he 
could  stand  his  wine  as  well  as  his  friend,  his  friend's 
potent  capacity  martially  after  the  feast  to  buckle  to  busi- 
ness at  a  sign  of  the  clock,  was  beyond  him .  It  pointed  to 
one  of  the  embodied  elements,  hot  from  Nature's  workshop. 
It  told  of  the  endurance  of  powers,  that  partly  explained 
the  successful,  astonishing  career  of  his  friend  among  a 
people  making  urgent,  if  unequal,  demands  perpetually 
upon  stomach  and  head. 


THE  LOi^DON    WALK  WESTWARD  31 

CHAPTER  V 

THE    LONDON    WALK    WESTWARD 

In  that  nationally  interesting  Poem,  or  Dramatic  Satire, 
once  famous,  The  Rajah  in  London  (London,  Limbo 
and  Sons,  1889),  now  obliterated  under  the  long  wash  of 
Press-matter,  the  reflection  —  not  unknown  to  philosophical 
observers,  and  natural  perhaps  in  the  mind  of  an  Oriental 
Prince  —  produced  by  his  observation  of  the  march  of 
London  citizens  Eastward  at  morn.  Westward  at  eve,  attrib- 
utes their  practice  to  a  survival  of  the  Zoroastrian  form  of 
worship.  His  Minister,  favourable  to  the  people  or  for  the 
sake  of  fostering  an  idea  in  his  Master's  head,  remarks, 
that  they  show  more  than  the  fidelity  of  the  sunflower  to 
her  God.  The  Rajah,  it  would  appear,  frowns  interroga- 
tively, in  the  princely  fashion,  accusing  him  of  obscureness 
of  speech :  —  princes  and  the  louder  members  of  the  grey 
public  are  fraternally  instant  to  spurn  at  the  whip  of  that 
which  they  do  not  immediately  comprehend.  It  is  explained 
by  the  Minister :  not  even  the  flower,  he  says,  would  hold 
constant,  as  they,  to  the  constantly  unseen — a  trebly  cata- 
phractic  Invisible.  The  Rajah  professes  curiosity  to  know 
how  it  is  that  the  singular  people  nourish  their  loyalty, 
since  they  cannot  attest  to  the  continued  being  of  the  object 
in  which  they  put  their  faith.  He  is  informed  by  his  pros- 
trate servant  of  a  settled  habit  they  have  of  diligently 
seeking  their  Divinity,  hidden  above,  below ;  and  of  copi- 
ously taking  inside  them  doses  of  what  is  denied  to  their 
external  vision :  thus  they  fortify  credence  chemically  on 
an  abundance  of  meats  and  liquors ;  fire  they  eat,  aud  they 
drink  fire ;  they  become  consequently  instinct  with  fire. 
Necessarily  therefore  they  believe  in  tire.  Believing,  they 
worship.  Worshipping,  they  march  Eastward  at  morn. 
Westward  at  eve.  For  that  way  lies  the  key,  this  way  the 
cupboard,  of  the  supplies,  their  fuel. 

According  to  Stage  directions.  The  Rajah  and  his 
Minister  Enter  a  Gm-Palace.  It  is  to  witness  a  service 
that  they  have  learnt  to  appreciate  as  Anglicanly  religious. 


32  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUEROES 

On  the  step  of  the  return  to  their  Indian  clime,  they 
speak  of  the  hatted  sect^  which  is  most,  or  most  commer- 
cially, succoured  and  fattened  by  our  rule  there :  they  wave 
adieu  to  the  conquering  Islanders,  as  to  "  Parsees  beneath  a 
cloud." 

The  two  are  seen  last  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel,  in  perusal 
of  a  medical  pamphlet  composed  of  statistics  and  sketches, 
traceries,  horrid  blots,  diagrams  with  numbers  referring  to 
notes,  of  the  various  maladies  caused  by  the  prolonged  prose- 
cution of  that  form  of  worship. 

"  But  can  they  suffer  so  and  live  ?  "  exclaims  the  Eajah, 
vexed  by  the  physical  sympathetic  twinges  which  set  him 
wincing. 

"  Science,"  his  Minister  answers,  "  took  them  up  where 
Nature,  in  pity  of  their  martyrdom,  dropped  them.  They 
do  not  live ;  they  are  engines,  insensible  things  of  repairs 
and  patches;  insteamed  to  pursue  their  infuriate  course, 
to  the  one  end  of  exhausting  supplies  for  the  renewing  of 
them,  on  peril  of  an  instant  suspension  if  they  deviate  a 
step  or  stop :  nor  do  they." 

The  Eajah  is  of  opinion,  that  he  sails  home  with  the  key 
of  the  riddle  of  their  power  to  vanquish.  In  some  apparent 
allusion  to  an  Indian  story  of  a  married  couple  who  success- 
fully made  their  way,  he  accounts  for  their  solid  and  resist- 
less advance,  resembling  that  of — 

The  doubly-wedded  man  and  wife, 
Pledged  to  each  other  and  against  the  world 
With  mutual  onion. 

One  would  like  to  think  of  the  lengthened  tide-flux  of 
pedestrian  citizens  facing  South-westward,  as  being  drawn 
by  devout  attraction  to  our  nourishing  luminary:  at  the 
hour,  mark,  when  the  Norland  cloud-king,  after  a  day  of 
wild  invasion,  sits  him  on  his  restful  bank  of  blueish  smack- 
o'-cheek  red  above  Whitechapel,  to  spy  where  his  last  puff 
of  icy  javelins  pierces  and  dismembers  the  vapoury  masses 
in  cluster  about  the  circle  of  flame  descending  upon  the 
greatest  and  most  elevated  of  Admirals  at  the  head  of  the 
Strand,  with  illumination  of  smoke-plumed  chimneys,  house- 
roofs,  window-panes,  weather-vanes,  monument  and  pedi- 
mental  monsters,  and  omnibus-umbrella.     One  would  fain 


THE  LONDON    WALK   WESTWARD  33 

believe  that  they  advance  admire ing;  they  are  assuredly 
made  handsome  by  the  beams.  No  longer  mere  concurrent 
atoms  of  the  furnace  of  business  (from  coal-dust  to  sparks 
rushing,  as  it  were,  on  respiratory  blasts  of  an  enormous 
engine's  centripetal  and  centrifugal  energy),  their  step  is 
leisurely  to  meet  the  rosy  Dinner,  which  is  ever  at  see-saw 
with  the  God  of  Light  in  his  fall ;  the  mask  of  the  noble 
human  visage  upon  them  is  not  roughened,  as  at  midday,  by 
those  knotted  hard  ridges  of  the  scrambler's  hand  seen 
from  forehead  down  to  jaw ;  when  indeed  they  have  all  the 
appearance  of  sour  scientific  productions.  And  unhappily 
for  the  national  portrait,  in  the  Poem  quoted,  the  Eajah's 
Minister  chose  an  hour  between  morning  and  meridian,  or 
at  least  before  an  astonished  luncheon  had  come  to  com- 
posure inside  their  persons,  for  drawing  his  Master's  atten- 
tion to  the  quaint  similarity  of  feature  in  the  units  of  the 
busy  antish  congregates  they  had  travelled  so  far  to  visit 
and  to  study : 

These  Britons  wear 
The  driven  and  perplexed  look  of  men 
Begotten  hastily  Hwixt  business  hours. 

It  could  not  have  been  late  afternoon. 

These  Orientals  should  have  seen  them,  with  Victor 
Radnor  among  them,  fronting  the  smoky  splendours  of  the 
sunset.  In  April,  the  month  of  piled  and  hurried  cloud,  it 
is  a  Eape  of  the  Sabines  overhead  from  all  quarters,  either 
one  of  the  winds  brawnily  larcenous  ;  and  London,  smoking 
royally  to  the  open  skies,  builds  images  of  a  dusty  epic  fray 
for  possession  of  the  portly  dames.  There  is  immensity, 
swinging  motion,  collision,  dusky  richness  of  colouring,  to 
the  sight ;  and  to  the  mind  idea.  London  presents  it.  If 
we  can  allow  ourselves  a  moment  for  not  inquireing  scrupu- 
lously (you  will  do  it  by  inhaling  the  aroma  of  the  ripe 
kitchen  hour),  here  is  a  noble  harmony  of  heaven  and  the 
earth  of  the  works  of  man,  speaking  a  grander  tongue  than 
barren  sea  or  wood  or  wilderness.  Just  a  moment ;  it  goes ; 
as,  when  a  well-attuned  barrel-organ  in  a  street  has  drawn 
us  to  recollections  of  the  Opera  or  Italy,  another  harshly 
crashes,  and  the  postman  knocks  at  doors,  and  perchance  a 
costermonger  cries  his  mash  of  fruit,  a  beggarwoman  wails 

3 


34  ONE  OF   OUR   CONQUERORS 

her  hj^mn.  For  the  pinched  are  here,  the  diimerless,  the 
weedy,  the  gutter-growths,  the  forces  repressing  them. 
That  grand  tongue  of  the  giant  City  inspires  none  human 
to  Bardic  eulogy  while  we  let  those  discords  be.  An  embit- 
tered Muse  of  Eeason  prompts  her  victims  to  the  composi- 
tion of  the  adulatory  Essay  and  of  the  Leading  Article, 
that  she  may  satiate  an  angry  irony  upon  those  who  pay  fee 
for  their  filling  with  the  stuff.  Son(/  of  praise  she  does  not 
permit.  A  moment  of  satisfaction  in  a  striking  picture  is 
accorded,  and  no  more.  For  this  London,  this  England, 
Europe,  world,  but  especially  this  London,  is  rather  a  thing 
for  hospital  operations  than  for  poetic  rhapsody ;  in  aspect, 
too,  streaked  scarlet  and  pock-pitted  under  the  most  cum- 
brous of  jewelled  tiaras  ;  a  Titanic  work  of  long-tolerated 
pygmies  ;  of  whom  the  leaders,  until  sorely  discomforted  in 
body  and  doubtful  in  soul,  will  give  gold  and  labour,  will 
impose  restrictions  upon  activity,  to  maintain  a  conserva- 
tism of  diseases.  Mind  is  absent,  or  somewhere  so  low 
down  beneath  material  accumulations  that  it  is  inexpressive, 
powerless  to  drive  the  ponderous  bulk  to  such  excisings, 
purgeings,  purifyings  as  might  —  as  may,  we  will  suppose, 
render  it  acceptable,  for  a  theme  of  panegyric,  to  the  Muse 
of  Reason ;  ultimately,  with  her  consent,  to  the  Spirit  of 
Song. 

But  first  there  must  be  the  cleansing.  When  Night  has 
fallen  upon  London,  the  Eajah  remarks : 

Monogamic  Societies  present 

A  decent  visage  and  a  hideous  rear. 

His  Minister  (satirically,  or  in  sympathetic  Conservatism) 
would  have  them  not  to  move  on,  that  they  may  preserve 
among  beholders  the  impression  of  their  handsome  frontage. 
Night,  however,  will  come;  and  they,  adoreing  the  decent 
face,  are  moved  on,  made  to  expose  what  the  Rajah  sees. 
Behind  his  courteousness,  he  is  an  antagonistic  observer  of 
his  conquerors ;  he  pushes  his  questions  farther  than  the 
need  for  them ;  his  Minister  the  same ;  apparently  to  retain 
the  discountenanced  people  in  their  state  of  exposure.  Up 
to  the  time  of  the  explanation  of  the  puzzle  on  board  the 
departing  vessel  (on  the  road  to  Windsor,  at  the  Premier's 
reception,  in  the  gell  of  the  Police,  in  the  presence  of  t^e 


THE  LONDON   WALK  WESTWARD  35 

Magistrate  —  whose  crack  of  a  totally  inverse  decision 
upon  their  case,  when  he  becomes  acquainted  with  the  titles 
and  station  of  these  iniputedly  peccant,  refreshes  them), 
they  hold  debates  over  the  mysterious  contrarieties  of  a 
people  professing  in  one  street  what  they  confound  in  the 
next,  and  practising  by  day  a  demureness  that  yells  with 
the  cat  of  the  tiles  at  night. 

Granting  all  that,  it  being  a  transient  novelist's  business 
to  please  the  light-winged  hosts  which  live  for  the  hour, 
and  give  him  his  only  chance  of  half  of  it,  let  him  identify 
himself  with  them,  in  keeping  to  the  quadrille  on  the 
surface  and  shirking  the  disagreeable. 

Clouds  of  high  colour  above  London  City  are  as  the  light 
of  the  Goddess  to  lift  the  angry  heroic  head  over  human. 
They  gloriously  transfigure.  A  Murillo  beggar  is  not  more 
precious  than  sight  of  London  in  any  of  the  streets  ad- 
mitting coloured  cloud-scenes;  the  cunning  of  the  sun*s 
hand  so  speaks  to  us.  And  if  haply  down  an  alley  some 
olive  mechanic  of  street-organs  has  quickened  little  chil- 
dren's legs  to  rhythmic  footing,  they  strike  on  thoughts 
braver  than  pastoral.  Victor  Eadnor,  lover  of  the  country 
though  he  was,  wQuld  have  been  the  first  to  say  it.  He 
would  indeed  have  said  it  too  emphatically.  Open  London 
as  a  theme,  to  a  citizen  of  London  ardent  for  the  clear  air 
out  of  it,  you  have  roused  an  orator ;  you  have  certainly 
fired  a  magazine,  and  must  listen  to  his  reminiscences  of 
one  of  its  paragraphs  or  pages. 

The  figures  of  the  hurtled  fair  ones  in  sky  were  wreathing 
Nelson's  cocked  hat  when  Victor,  distinguishably  bright- 
faced  amid  a  crowd  of  the  irradiated,  emerged  from  the 
tideway  to  cross  the  square,  having  thoughts  upon  Art, 
which  were  due  rather  to  the  suggestive  proximity  of  the 
National  Gallery  than  to  the  Flemish  mouldings  of  cloud- 
forms  under  Venetian  brushes.  His  purchases  of  pictures 
had  been  his  unhappiest  ventures.  He  had  relied  and 
reposed  on  the  dicta  of  newspaper  critics ;  who  are  some- 
times unanimous,  and  are  then  taken  for  guides,  and  are 
fatal.  He  was  led  to  the  conclusion  that  our  modern-lauded 
pictures  do  not  ripen.  They  have  a  chance  of  it,  if  abused. 
But  who  thinks  of  buying  the  abused?  Exalted  by  the 
critics^  they  have,  during  the  days  of  Exhibition,  a  glow,  a 


36  o:ne  of  ouk  conquerors 

significance  or  a  fun,  abandoning  them  where  examination 
is  close  and  constant,  and  the  critic's  trumpet-note  dispersed 
to  the  thinness  of  the  fee  for  his  blowing.  As  to  foreign 
pictures,  classic  pictures,  Victor  had  known  his  purse  to 
leap  for  a  Raphael  with  a  history  in  stages  of  descent  from 
the  Master,  and  critics  to  swarm :  a  Raphael  of  the  dealers, 
exposed  to  be  condemned  by  the  critics,  universally  derided. 
A  real  Raphael  in  your  house  is  aristocracy  to  the  roof-tree. 
But  the  wealthy  trader  will  reach  to  title  before  he  may 
hope  to  get  the  real  Raphael  or  a  Titian.  Yet  he  is  tlie  one 
who  would,  it  may  be,  after  enjoyment  of  his  prize,  bequeath 
it  to  the  nation :  —  Pkesented  to  the  Nation  by  Victor 
Montgomery  Radnor.  There  stood  the  letters  in  gilt ;  and 
he  had  a  thrill  of  his  generosity  ;  for  few  were  the  generous 
acts  he  could  not  perform;  and  if  an  object  haunted  the 
deed,  it  came  of  his  trader's  habit  of  mind. 

He  revelled  in  benevolent  projects  of  gifts  to  the  nation, 
which  would  coat  a  sensitive  name.  Say,  an  ornamental 
City  Square,  flowers,  fountains,  afternoon  bands  of  music : 
comfortable  seats  in  it,  and  a  shelter,  and  a  ready  supply  of 
good  cheap  coffee  or  tea.  Tobacco  ?  why  not  rolls  of  honest 
tobacco !  nothing  so  much  soothes  the  labourer.  A  volume 
of  plans  for  the  benefit  of  London  smoked  out  of  each  ascend- 
ing pile  in  his  brain.  London  is  at  night  a  moaning  outcast 
round  the  policeman's  legs.  What  of  an  all-night-long,  cosy, 
brightly-lighted,  odoriferous  coffee-saloon  for  rich  or  poor, 
on  the  model  of  the  hospitable  Paduan  ?  Owner  of  a  penny, 
no  soul  among  us  shall  be  rightly  an  outcast.  .  .  . 

Dreams  of  this  kind  are  taken  at  times  by  wealthy  people 
as  a  cordial  at  the  bar  of  benevolent  intentions.  But  Victor 
was  not  the  man  to  steal  his  refreshments  in  that  known 
style.  He  meant  to  make  deeds  of  them,  as  far  as  he 
could,  considering  their  immense  extension;  and  except 
for  the  sensitive  social  name,  he  was  of  single-minded 
purpose. 

Turning  to  the  steps  of  a  chemist's  shop  to  get  a  prescrip- 
tion made  up  for  his  Nataly's  doctoring  of  her  domestics,  he 
was  arrested  by  a  rap  on  his  elbow;  and  no  one  was  near; 
and  there  could  not  be  a  doubt  of  the  blow  —  a  sharp  hard 
stroke,  sparing  the  funny-bone,  but  ringing.  His  head,  at 
the  punctilio  bump,  throbbed  responsively :  owing  to  which 


THE  LOM)OK  WALK  WESTWARD  37 

or  indifference  to  the  prescription,  as  of  no  instant  require- 
ment, he  pursued  his  course,  resembling  mentally  the 
wanderer  along  a  misty  beach,  who  hears  cannon  across  the 
waters. 

He  certainly  had  felt  it.  He  remembered  the  shock :  he 
could  not  remember  much  of  pain.  How  about  intimations  ? 
His  asking  caused  a  smile. 

i  Very  soon  the  riddle  answered  itself.  He  had  come  into 
view  of  the  diminutive  marble  cavalier  of  the  infantile 
cerebellum ;  recollecting  a  couplet  from  the  pen  of  the  dis- 
respectful Satirist  Peter,  he  thought  of  a  fall :  his  head  and 
his  elbow  responded  simultaneously  to  the  thought. 

All  was  explained  save  his  consequent  rightabout  from  the 
chemist's  shop :  and  that  belongs  to  the  minor  involutions  of 
circumstances  and  the  will.  It  passed  like  a  river's  wrinkle. 
He  read  the  placards  of  the  Opera,  reminding  himself  of  the 
day  when  it  was  the  single  Opera-house  ;  and  now  we  have 
two  —  or  three.  We  have  also  a  distracting  couple  of 
Clowns  and  Pantaloons  in  our  Pantomimes :  though  Colney 
says  that  the  multiplication  of  the  pantaloon  is  a  distinct 
advance  to  representative  truth  —  and  bother  Colney !  Two 
Columbines  also.  We  forbear  to  speak  of  men,  but  where 
is  the  boy  who  can  set  his  young  heart  upon  two  Columbines 
at  once !  Victor  felt  the  boy  within  him  cold  to  both :  and 
in  his  youth  he  had  doated  on  the  solitary  twirling  spangled 
lovely  Fairy.  The  tale  of  a  delicate  lady  dancer  leaping  as 
the  kernel  out  of  a  nut  from  the  arms  of  Harlequin  to  the 
legalized  embrace  of  a  wealthy  brewer,  and  thenceforth 
living,  by  repute,  with  unagitated  legs,  as  holy  a  matron, 
despite  her  starry  past,  as  any  to  be  shown  in  a  country 
breeding  the  like  abundantly,  had  always  delighted  him. 
It  seemed  a  reconcilement  of  opposing  stations,  a  defeat  of 
Puritanism.  Ay,  and  poor  women  !  —  women  in  the  worser 
plight  under  the  Puritan's  eye.  They  may  be  erring  and 
good:  yes,  finding  the  man  to  lift  them  the  one  step  up! 
Read  the  history  of  the  error.  But  presently  we  shall 
teach  the  Puritan  to  act  by  the  standards  of  his  religion. 
All  is  coming  right  —  must  come  right.  Colney  shall  be 
confounded. 

Hereupon  Victor  hopped  on  to  Fenellan's  hint  regarding 
the  designs  of  *'  Mrs.  Burman." 


88  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

His  Nataly  might  have  to  go  through  a  short  sharp  term 
of  scorching —  Godiva  to  the  gossips. 

She  would  come  out  of  it  glorified.  She  would  be  recon- 
ciled with  her  family.  With  her  story  of  her  devotion  to 
the  man  loving  her,  the  world  would  know  her  for  the 
heroine  she  was :  a  born  lady,  in  appearance  and  manner  an 
empress  among  women.  It  was  a  story  to  be  pleaded  in  any 
court,  before  the  sternest  public.  Mrs.  Burman  had  thrown 
her  into  temptation's  way.  It  was  a  story  to  touch  the 
heart,  as  none  other  ever  written.  Not  over  all  the  earth 
was  there  a  woman  equalling  his  Nataly  ! 

And  their  Nesta  would  have  a  dowry  to  make  princesses 
envious ;  —  she  would  inherit  ...  he  ran  up  an  arith- 
metical column,  down  to  a  line  of  figures  in  addition,  dur- 
ing three  paces  of  his  feet.  Dartrey  Fenellan  had  said  of 
little  Nesta  once,  that  she  had  a  nature  pure  and  sparkling 
as  mid-sea  foam.  Happy  he  who  wins  her!  But  she  was 
one  of  the  young  women  who  are  easily  pleased  and  hardly 
enthralled.  Her  father  strained  his  mind  for  the  shape 
of  the  man  to  accomplish  the  feat.  Whether  she  had 
an  ideal  of  a  youth  in  her  feminine  head,  was  beyond  his 
guessing.  She  was  not  the  damsel  to  weave  a  fairy 
waistcoat  for  the  identical  prince,  and  try  it  upon  all 
comers  to  discover  him:  as  is  done  by  some;  excuseably, 
if  we  would  be  just.  Nesta  was  of  the  elect,  for  whom 
excuses  have  not  to  be  made.  She  would  probably  like  a 
flute-player  best;  because  her  father  played  the  flute,  and 
she  loved  him  —  laughably  a  little  maiden's  reason!  Her 
father  laughed  at  her. 

Along  the  street  of  Clubs,  where  a  bruised  fancy  may 
see  black  balls  raining,  the  narrow  way  between  ducal 
mansions  offers  prospect  of  the  sweep  of  greensward,  all 
but  touching  up  to  the  sunset  to  draw  it  to  the  dance. 

Formerly,  in  his  very  early  youth,  he  clasped  a  dream 
of  gaining  way  to  an  alliance  with  one  of  these  great 
surrounding  houses ;  and  he  had  a  passion  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  money  as  a  means.  And  it  has  to  be  confessed, 
he  had  sacrificed  in  youth  a  slice  of  his  youth,  to  gain  it 
without  labour  —  usually  a  costly  purchase.  It  had  ended 
disastrously :  or  say,  a  running  of  the  engine  off  the  rails, 
and  a  speedy  re-establishment  of  traffic.     Could  it  be  a 


THE  LONDON  WALK  WESTWAED  39 

loss,  that  had  led  to  the  winning  of  his  Nataly  ?  Can 
we  really  loathe  the  first  of  the  steps  when  the  one  in  due 
sequence,  cousin  to  it,  is  a  blessedness  ?  If  we  have  been 
righted  to  health  by  a  medical  draught,  we  are  bound  to 
be  respectful  to  our  drug.  And  so  we  are,  in  spite  of 
Nature's  wry  face  and  shiver  at  a  mention  of  what  we  went 
through  during  those  days,  those  horrible  days :  —  hide 
them ! 

The  smothering  of  them  from  sight  set  them  sounding: 
he  had  to  listen.  Colney  Durance  accused  him  of  entering 
into  bonds  with  somebody's  grandmother  for  the  simple 
sake  of  browsing  on  her  thousands :  a  picture  of  himself 
too  abhorrent  to  Victor  to  permit  of  any  sort  of  accept- 
ance. Consequently  he  struck  away  to  the  other  extreme 
of  those  who  have  a  choice  in  mixed  motives :  he  protested 
that  compassion  had  been  the  cause  of  it.  Looking 
at  the  circumstance  now,  he  could  see,  allowing  for  human 
frailty  —  perhaps  a  wish  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  wealthy 

—  compassion  for  the  woman  as  the  principal  motive. 
How  often  had  she  not  in  those  old  days  praised  his  gen- 
erosity for  allying  his  golden  youth  to  her  withered  age 

—  Mrs.  Burman's  very  words!  And  she  was  a  generous 
woman  —  or  had  been :  she  was  generous  in  saying  that. 
Well,  and  she  was  generous  in  having  a  well-born,  well- 
bred  beautiful  young  creature  like  Nataly  for  her  com- 
panion, when  it  was  a  case  of  need  for  the  dear  girl;  and 
compassionately  insisting,  against  remonstrances :  —  they 
were  spoken  by  him,  though  they  were  but  partial.  How, 
then,  had  she  become  —  at  least,  how  was  it  that  she  could 
continue  to  behave  as  the  vindictive  Fury  who  persecuted 
remorselessly,  would  give  no  peace,  poisoned  the  wells 
round  every  place  where  he  and  his  dear  one  pitched 
their  tent! 

But  at  last  she  had  come  to  charity,  as  he  could  well 
believe.  Not  too  late!  Victor's  feeling  of  gratitude  to 
Mrs.  Burman  assured  him  it  was  genuine  because  of  his 
genuine  conviction,  that  she  had  determined  to  end  her 
incomprehensibly  lengthened  days  in  reconcilement  with 
him:  and  he  had  always  been  ready  to  "forget  and  for- 
give." A  truly  beautiful  old  phrase!  It  thrilled  one  of 
the  most  susceptible  of  men. 


40  OKlB  OF  OtTR  CONQtTERORg 

His  well-kept  secret  of  the  spacious  country-house 
danced  him  behind  a  sober  demeanour  from  one  park  to 
another;  and  along  beside  the  drive  to  view  of  his  town- 
house  —  unbeloved  of  the  inhabitants ,  although  by  acknowl- 
edgement it  had,  as  Fredi  funnily  drawled,  to  express  her 
sense  of  justice  in  depreciation,  "good  accommodation." 
Nataly  was  at  home,  he  was  sure.  Time  to  be  dressing: 
sun  sets  at  six-forty,  he  said,  and  glanced  at  the  stained 
West,  with  an  accompanying  vision  of  outspread  primroses 
flooding  banks  of  shadowy  fields  near  Lakelands. 

He  crossed  the  road  and  rang. 

Upon  the  opening  of  the  door,  there  was  a  cascade  of 
muslin  downstairs.  His  darling  Fredi  stood  out  of  it,  a 
dramatic  Undine. 


CHAPTER  VI 

NATALY 


"  II  segreto !  "  the  girl  cried  commandingly,  with  a  fore- 
finger at  his  breast. 

He  crossed  arms,  toning  in  similar  recitative,  with 
anguish,  "  Dove  volare  !  " 

They  joined  in  half  a  dozen  bars  of  operatic  duet. 

She  flew  to  him,  embraced  and  kissed. 

"  I  must  have  it,  my  papa !  unlock.  I  've  been  spying 
the  bird  on  its  hedgerow  nest  so  long!  And  this  morning, 
my  own  dear  cunning  papa,  were  n't  you  as  bare  as  winter 
twigs?  'To-morrow  perhaps  we  will  have  a  day  in  the 
country.'  To  go  and  see  the  nest?  Only,  please,  not  a 
big  one.  A  real  nest;  where  mama  and  I  can  wear  dairy- 
maid's hat  and  apron  all  day  —  the  style  you  like;  and 
strike  roots.  We  've  been  torn  away  two  or  three  times : 
twice,  I  know." 

"Fixed,  this  time;  nothing  shall  tear  us  up,"  said  her 
father,  moving  on  to  the  stairs,  with  an  arm  about  her. 

"So,  itis?  .  .  ." 

"She  's  amazed  at  her  cleverness!  " 

"A  nest  for  three?" 


NATALY  41 

"We  must  have  a  friend  or  two." 

"  And  pretty  country  ?  " 

"Trust  her  papa  for  that." 

"  Nice  for  walking  and  running  over  fields  ?  No  rich 
people  ?  " 

"How  escape  that  rabble  in  England!  as  Colney  says. 
It 's  a  place  for  being  quite  independent  of  neighbours, 
free  as  air." 

"Oh!  bravo!" 

"And  Fredi  will  have  her  horse,  and  mama  her  pony- 
carriage;  and  Eredi  can  have  a  swim  every  Summer 
morning." 

"  A  swim  ?  "     Her  note  was  dubious.     "  A  river  ?  " 

"A  good  long  stretch  —  fairish,  fairish.  Bit  of  a  lake; 
bathing-shed;  the  Naiad's  bower:  pretty  water  to  see." 

"  Ah !     And  has  the  house  a  name  ?  " 

"Lakelands.     I  like  the  name." 

"  Papa  gave  it  the  name !  " 

"There's  nothing  he  can  conceal  from  his  girl.  Only 
now  and  then  a  little  surprise." 

"  And  his  girl  is  off  her  head  with  astonishment.  But 
tell  me,  who  has  been  sharing  the  secret  with  you  ?  " 

"Fredi  strikes  home!  And  it  is  true,  you  dear;  I  must 
have  a  confidant :  Simeon  Fenellan." 

"Not  Mr.  Durance?" 

He  shook  out  a  positive  negative.  "  I  leave  Colney  to 
his  guesses.  He  'd  have  been  prophesying  fire  to  the 
works  before  the  completion." 

"  Then  it  is  not  a  dear  old  house,  like  Craye  and  Creek- 
holt?" 

"Wait  and  see  to-morrow." 

He  spoke  of  the  customary  guests  for  Concert  practice; 
the  music,  instrumental  and  vocal;  quartet,  duet,  solo; 
and  advising  the  girl  to  be  quick,  as  she  had  but  twenty - 
five  minutes,  he  went  humming  and  trilling  into  his 
dressing-room. 

Nesta  signalled  at  her  mother's  door  for  permission  to 
enter.  She  slipped  in,  saw  that  the  maid  was  absent,  and 
said:  "Yes,  mama;  and  prepare,  I  feared  it;  I  was  sure." 

Her  mother  breathed  a  little  moan :  "  Not  a  cottage  ?  " 

"He  has  not  mentioned  it  to  Mr.  Durance." 


42  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUEROES 

"Why  not?" 

"Mr.  Fenellan  has  been  his  confidant." 

"  My  darling,  we  did  wrong  to  let  it  go  on,  without 
speaking.     You  don't  know  for  certain  yet  ?  " 

"It 's  a  large  estate,  mama,  and  a  big  new  house." 

Nataly's  bosom  sank.  "Ah  me!  here's  misery!  I 
ought  to  have  known.  And  too  late  now  it  has  gone  so  far ! 
But  I  never  imagined  he  would  be  building." 

She  caught  herself  languishing  at  her  toilette-glass,  as 
if  her  beauty  were  at  stake ;  and  shut  her  eyelids  angrily. 
To  be  looking  in  that  manner,  for  a  mere  suspicion,  was 
too  foolish.  But  Nesta's  divinations  were  target-arrows; 
they  flew  to  the  mark.  Could  it  have  been  expected  that 
Victor  would  ever  do  anything  on  a  small  scale  ?  0  the 
dear  little  lost  lost  cottage  !  She  thought  of  it  with  a 
strain  of  the  arms  of  womanhood's  longing  in  the  un- 
blessed wife  for  a  babe.  For  the  secluded  modest  cottage 
would  not  rack  her  with  the  old  anxieties,  beset  her  with 
suspicions.  .  .  . 

"My  child,  you  won't  possibly  have  time  before  the 
dinner-hour,"  she  said  to  Nesta,  dismissing  her  and  taking 
her  kiss  of  comfort  with  a  short  and  straining  look  out  of 
the  depths. 

Those  bitter  doubts  of  the  sentiments  of  neighbours  are 
an  incipient  dislike,  when  one's  own  feelings  to  the  neigh- 
bours are  kind,  could  be  affectionate.  We  are  distracted, 
perverted,  made  strangers  to  ourselves  by  a  false  position. 

She  heard  his  voice  on  a  carol.  Men  do  not  feel  this 
doubtful  position  as  women  must.  They  have  not  the 
same  to  endure ;  the  world  gives  them  land  to  tread,  where 
women  are  on  breaking  seas.  Her  Nesta  knew  no  more 
than  the  pain  of  being  torn  from  a  home  she  loved.  But 
now  the  girl  was  older,  and  if  once  she  had  her  imagination 
awakened,  her  fearful  directness  would  touch  the  spot, 
question,  bring  on  the  scene  to-come,  necessarily  to-come, 
dreaded  much  more  than  death  by  her  mother.  But  if  it 
might  be  postponed  till  the  girl  was  nearer  to  an  age  of 
grave  understanding,  with  some  knowledge  of  our  world, 
some  comprehension  of  a  case  that  could  be  pleaded  !  — 

He  sang:  he  never  acknowledged  a  trouble,  he  dispersed 
it;  and  in  her  present  wrestle  with  the  scheme  of  a  large 


NATALY  43 

country  estate  involving  new  intimacies,  anxieties,  the 
courtship  of  rival  magnates,  followed  by  the  wretched  old 
cloud,  and  the  imposition  upon  them  to  bear  it  in  silence 
though  they  knew  they  could  plead  a  case,  at  least  before 
charitable  and  discerning  creatures  or  before  heaven,  the 
despondent  lady  could  have  asked  whether  he  was  per- 
fectly sane. 

Who  half  so  brilliantly !  —  Depreciation  of  him,  fetched 
up  at  a  stroke  the  glittering  armies  of  her  enthusiasm.  — 
He  had  proved  it;  he  proved  it  daily  in  conflicts  and  in 
victories  that  dwarfed  emotional  troubles  like  hers:  yet 
they  were  something  to  bear,  hard  to  bear,  at  times 
unbearable. 

But  those  were  times  of  weakness.  Let  anything  be 
doubted  rather  than  the  good  guidance  of  the  man  who  was 
her  breath  of  life!  Whither  he  led,  let  her  go,  not  only 
submissively,  exultingly. 

Thus  she  thought,  under  pressure  of  the  knowledge,  that 
unless  rushing  into  conflicts  bigger  than  conceivable,  she 
had  to  do  it,  and  should  therefore  think  it. 

This  was  the  prudent  woman's  clear  deduction  from  the 
state  wherein  she  found  herself,  created  by  the  one  first 
great  step  of  the  mad  woman.  Her  surrender  then  might 
be  likened  to  the  detachment  of  a  flower  on  the  river's 
bank  by  swell  of  flood :  she  had  no  longer  root  of  her  own ; 
away  she  sailed,  through  beautiful  scenery,  with  occasion- 
ally a  crashing  fall,  a  turmoil,  emergence  from  a  vortex,  and 
once  more  the  sunny  whirling  surface.  Strange  to  think, 
she  had  not  since  then  power  to  grasp  in  her  abstract  mind 
a  notion  of  stedfastness  without  or  within. 

But,  say  not  the  mad,  say  the  enamoured  woman.  Love 
is  a  madness,  having  heaven's  wisdom  in  it  —  a  spark.  But 
even  when  it  is  driving  us  on  the  breakers,  call  it  love: 
and  be  not  unworthy  of  it,  hold  to  it.  She  and  Victor  had 
drunk  of  a  cup.  The  philtre  was  in  her  veins,  whatever 
the  directions  of  the  rational  mind. 

Exulting  or  regretting,  she  had  to  do  it,  as  one  in  the 
car  with  a  racing  charioteer.  Or  up  beside  a  more  than 
Titanically  audacious  balloonist.  For  the  charioteer  is 
bent  on  a  goal;  and  Victor's  course  was  an  ascension  from 
heights  to  heights.     He  had  ideas,  he  mastered  Fortune. 


44  ONE  Oi'  OtJE  CONQtJERORS 

He  conquered  Nataly  and  held  her  subject,  in  being  above 
his  ambition;  which  was  now  but  an  occupation  for  his 
powers,  while  the  aim  of  his  life  was  at  the  giving  and 
taking  of  simple  enjoyment.  In  spite  of  his  fits  of  unrea- 
sonableness in  the  means  —  and  the  woman  loving  him 
could  trace  them  to  a  breadth  of  nature  —  his  gentle  good 
friendly  innocent  aim  in  life  was  of  this  very  simplest; 
so  wonderful,  by  contrast  with  his  powers,  chat  she, 
assured  of  it  as  she  was  by  experience  of  him,  was  touched, 
in  a  transfusion  of  her  feelings  through  lucent  globes  of 
admiration  and  of  tenderness,  to  reverence.  There  had 
been  occasions  when  her  wish  for  the  whole  world  to  have 
proof  and  exhibition  of  his  greatness,  goodness,  and  sim- 
plicity amid  his  gifts,  prompted  her  incitement  of  him 
to  stand  forth  eminently  ("lead  a  kingdom,"  was  the 
phrase  behind  the  curtain  within  her  shy  bosom);  and  it 
revealed  her  to  herself,  upon  reflection,  as  being  still 
the  Nataly  who  drank  the  cup  with  him,  to  join  her  fate 
with  his. 

And  why  not  ?  Was  that  regretted  ?  Far  from  it.  In 
her  maturity,  the  woman  was  unable  to  send  forth  any 
dwelling  thought  or  more  than  a  flight  of  twilight  fancy, 
that  cancelled  the  deed  of  her  youth,  and  therewith 
seemed  to  expunge  near  upon  the  half  of  her  term  of 
years.  If  it  came  to  consideration  of  her  family  and  the 
family's  opinion  of  her  conduct,  her  judgement  did  not  side 
with  them  or  with  herself,  it  whirled,  swam  to  a  giddiness 
and  subsided. 

Of  course,  if  she  and  Victor  were  to  inhabit  a  large 
country-house,  they  might  as  well  have  remained  at  Craye 
Farm  or  at  Creckholt;  both  places  dear  to  them  in  turn. 
Such  was  the  plain  sense  of  the  surface  question.  And 
how  strange  it  was  to  her,  that  he,  of  the  most  quivering 
sensitiveness  on  her  behalf,  could  not  see,  that  he  threw 
her  into  situations  where  hard  words  of  men  and  women 
threatened  about  her  head;  where  one  or  two  might  on  a 
day,  some  day,  be  heard;  and  where,  in  the  recollection  of 
two  years  back,  the  word  "  Impostor  "  had  smacked  her  on 
both  cheeks  from  her  own  mouth. 

Now  once  more  they  were  to  run  the  same  round  of 
alarms,   undergo  the   love   of  the   place,  with  perpetual 


NATALY  45 

apprehensions  of  having  to  leave  it:  alarms,  throbbing 
suspicions,  like  those  of  old  travellers  through  the  haunted 
forest,  where  whispers  have  intensity  of  meaning,  and 
unseeing  we  are  seen,  and  unaware  awaited. 

Nataly  shook  the  rolls  of  her  thick  brown  hair  from  her 
forehead ;  she  took  strength  from  a  handsome  look  of  reso- 
lution in  the  glass.  She  could  always  honestly  say,  that 
her  courage  would  not  fail  him. 

Victor  tapped  at  the  door;  he  stepped  into  the  room, 
wearing  his  evening  white  flower  over  a  more  open  white 
waistcoat;  and  she  was  composed  and  uninquiring.  Their 
i^esta  was  heard  on  the  descent  of  the  stairs,  with  a  rattle 
of  Donizetti's  iZ  segreto  to  the  skylights. 

He  performed  his  never-omitted  lover's  homage. 

Nataly  enfolded  him  in  a  homely  smile.  "  A  country- 
house  ?     We  go  and  see  it  to-morrow  ?  " 

"And  you've  been  pining  for  a  country  home,  my  deai 
soul." 

"After  the  summer  six  weeks,  the  house  in  London  does 
not  seem  a  home  to  return  to." 

"  And  next  day,  Nataly  draws  five  thousand  pounds  for 
the  first  sketch  of  the  furniture." 

"There  is  the  Creckholt  ..."  she  had  a  difiiculty  in 
saying. 

"  Part  of  it  may  do.  Lakelands  requires  —  but  you  will 
see  to-morrow." 

After  a  close  shutting  of  her  eyes,  she  rejoined :  "  It  is 
not  a  cottage  ?  " 

"  Well,  dear,  no :  when  the  Slave  of  the  Lamp  takes  to 
building,  he  does  not  run  up  cottages.  And  we  did  it 
without  magic,  all  in  a  year ;  which  is  quite  as  good  as  a 
magical  trick  in  a  night."  He  drew  her  close  to  him. 
"  When  was  it  my  dear  girl  guessed  me  at  work  ?  " 

"It  was  the  other  dear  girl.     Nesta  is  the  guesser." 

"You  were  two  best  of  souls  to  keep  from  bothering  me; 
and  I  might  have  had  to  fib;  and  we  neither  of  us  like 
that."  He  noticed  a  sidling  of  her  look.  "More  than  the 
circumstances  oblige :  —  to  be  frank.  But  now  we  can 
speak  of  them.  Wait  —  and  the  change  comes ;  and  oppor- 
tunely, I  have  found.  It 's  true  we  have  waited  long;  my 
darling  has  had  her  worries.     However,  it 's  here  at  last. 


46  ONE  OF   OUR   CONQUERORS 

Prepare  yourself.  I  speak  positively.  You  have  to  brace 
up  for  one  sharp  twitch  —  the  ivoman's 2^ortion  !  as  Natata 
says  —  and  it 's  over."  He  looked  into  her  eyes  for  com- 
prehension; and  not  finding  inquiry,  resumed:  "Just  in 
time  for  the  entry  into  Lakelands.  With  the  pronounce- 
ment of  the  decree,  we  present  the  licence  ...  at  an 
altar  we  've  stood  before,  in  spirit  .  .  .  one  of  the  ladies 
of  your  family  to  support  you :  —  why  not  ?  Not  even 
then  ?  " 

"No,  Victor;  they  have  cast  me  off." 

"Count  on  my  cousins,  the  Duvidney  ladies.  Then  we 
can  say,  that  those  two  good  old  spinsters  are  less  narrow 
than  the  Dreightons.  I  have  to  confess  I  rather  think  I 
was  to  blame  for  leaving  Creckholt.  Only,  if  I  see  my 
girl  wounded,  I  hate  the  place  that  did  the  mischief. 
You  and  Eredi  will  clap  hands  for  the  country  about 
Lakelands." 

"Have  you  heard  from  her  ...  of  her  ...  is  it  any- 
thing, Victor?"  Nataly  asked  him  shyly;  with  not  much 
of  hope,  but  some  readiness  to  be  inflated.  The  prospect 
of  an  entry  into  the  big  new  house,  among  a  new  society, 
begirt  by  the  old  nightmares  and  fretting  devils^  drew  her 
into  staring  daylight  or  furnace-light. 

He  answered:  "Mrs.  Burm.an  has  definitely  decided. 
In  pity  of  us  ?  —  to  be  free  herself  ?  —  who  can  say!  She  's 
a  woman  with  a  conscience  —  of  a  kind :  slow,  but  it 
brings  her  to  the  point  at  last.  You  know  her,  know  her 
well.  Fenellan  has  it  from  her  lawyer  —  her  lawj^er  !  a 
Mr.  Carling;  a  thoroughly  trustworthy  man." 

"  Fenellan,  as  a  reporter  ?  " 

"  Thoroughly  to  be  trusted  on  serious  matters.  I  under- 
stand that  Mrs.  Burman:  —  her  health  is  awful:  yes,  yes; 
poor  woman !  poor  woman !  we  feel  for  her :  —  she  has  come 
to  perceive  her  duty  to  those  she  leaves  behind.  Con- 
sider: she  has  used  the  rod.  She  must  be  tired  out  —  if 
human.     And  she  is.     One  remembers  traits." 

Victor  sketched  one  or  two  of  the  traits  allusively  to 
the  hearer  acquainted  with  them.  They  received  strong 
colouring  from  midday's  Old  Veuve  in  his  blood.  His 
voice  and  words  had  a  swing  of  conviction :  they  imparted 
vinousness  to  a  heart  athirst. 


KATALY  47 

The  histrionic  self -deceiver  may  be  a  persuasive  deceiver 
of  another,  who  is  again,  though  not  ignorant  of  his  char- 
acter, tempted  to  swallow  the  nostriuus  which  have  made 
so  gallant  a  man  of  him :  his  imperceptible  sensible  play- 
ing of  the  part,  on  a  substratum  of  sincereness,  induces 
fascinatingly  to  the  like  performance  on  our  side,  that  we 
may  be  armed  as  he  is  for  enjoying  the  coveted  reality 
through  the  partial  simulation  of  possessing  it.  And  this 
is  not  a  task  to  us  when  we  have  looked  our  actor  in  the 
face,  and  seen  him  bear  the  look,  knowing  that  he  is  not 
intentionally  untruthful;  and  when  we  incline  to  be  capti- 
vated by  his  rare  theatricpJ  air  of  confidence;  when  it 
seems  as  an  outside  thought  striking  us,  that  he  may  not 
be  altogether  deceived  in  the  present  instance;  when  sud- 
denly an  expectation  of  the  thing  desired  is  born  and 
swims  in  a  credible  featureless  vagueness  on  a  misty  scene : 
and  when  we  are  being  kissed  and  the  blood  is  warmed. 
In  fine,  here  as  everywhere  along  our  history,  when  the 
sensations  are  spirited  up  to  drown  the  mind,  we  become 
drift-matter  of  tides,  metal  to  magnets.  And  if  we  are 
women,  who  commonly  allow  the  lead  to  men,  getting  it 
for  themselves  only  by  snaky  cunning  or  desperate  adven- 
ture, credulity  —  the  continued  trust  in  the  man  —  is  the 
alternative  of  despair. 

"But,  Victor,  I  must  ask,"  Nataly  said:  "you  have  it 
through  Simeon  Fenellan ;  you  have  not  yourself  received 
the  letter  from  her  lawyer?" 

"  My  knowledge  of  what  she  would  do  near  the  grave : 
—  poor  soul,  yes  !     I  shall  soon  be  hearing." 

"  You  do  not  propose  to  enter  this  place  until  —  until  it 
is  over  ?  " 

"We  enter  this  place,  my  love,  without  any  sort  of 
ceremony.  We  live  there  independently,  and  we  can :  we 
have  quarters  there  for  our  friends.  Our  one  neighbour  is 
London  —  there!  And  at  Lakelands  we  are  able  to  enter- 
tain London  and  wife:  —  our  friends,  in  short;  with  some, 
what  we  have  to  call,  satellites.  You  inspect  the  house 
and  grounds  to-morrow  —  sure  to  be  fair.  Put  aside  all 
but  the  pleasant  recollections  of  Craye  and  Creckholt. 
We  start  on  a  different  footing.  Really  nothing  can  be 
simpler.     Keeping  your  town-house,  you  are  now  and  then 


48  ONE   OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

in  residence  at  Lakelands,  where  you  entertain  your  set, 
teach  them  to  feel  the  charm  of  country  life:  we  have 
everything  about  us;  could  have  had  our  own  milk  and 
cream  up  to  London  the  last  two  months.  Was  it  very 
naughty  ? — 1  should  have  exploded  my  surprise !  You  will 
see,  you  will  see  to-morrow." 

Nataly  nodded,  as  required.  "Good  news  from  the 
mines  ?  "  she  said. 

He  answered :  "  Dartrey  is  —  yes,  poor  fellow  !  —  Dar- 
trey  is  confident,  from  the  yield  of  stones,  that  the  value 
of  our  claim  counts  in  a  number  of  millions.  The  same 
with  the  gold.     But  gold-mines  are  lodgeings,  not  homes." 

"  Oh,  Victor !  if  money  !  .  .  .  But  why  did  you  say  '  poor 
fellow  '  of  Dartrey  Fenellan  ?  " 

"You  know  how  he 's  .  .   J^ 

"Yes,  yes,"  she  said  hastily.  "But  has  that  woman 
been  causing  fresh  anxiety  ?  " 

"And  Natata's  chief  hero  on  earth  is  not  to  be  named  a 
poor  fellow,"  said  he,  after  a  negative  of  the  head  on  a 
subject  they  neither  of  them  liked  to  touch. 

Then  he  remembered  that  Dartrey  Fenellan  was  actually 
a  lucky  fellow;  and  he  would  have  mentioned  the  circum- 
stance coniided  to  him  by  Simeon,  but  for  a  downright 
dread  of  renewing  his  painful  lit  of  envy.  He  had  also 
another,  more  distant,  very  faint  idea,  that  it  had  better 
not  be  mentioned  just  yet,  for  a  reason  entirely  undefined. 

He  consulted  his  watch.  The  maid  had  come  in  for  the 
robeing  of  her  mistress.  Nataly's  mind  had  turned  to  the 
little  country  cottage  which  would  have  given  her  such 
great  happiness.  She  raised  her  eyes  to  him;  she  could 
not  check  their  filling;  they  were  like  a  river  carrying 
moonlight  on  the  smooth  roll  of  a  fall. 

He  loved  the  eyes,  disliked  the  water  in  them.  With 
an  impatient,  "  There,  there !  "  and  a  smart  affectionate 
look,  he  retired,  thinking  in  our  old  satirical  vein  of  the 
hopeless  endeavour  to  satisfy  a  woman^s  mind  without 
the  intrusion  of  hard  material  statements,  facts.  Even  the 
best  of  women,  even  the  most  beautiful,  and  in  their 
moments  of  supremest  beauty,  have  this  gross  ravenousness 
for  facts.  You  must  not  expect  to  appease  them  unless 
you  administer  solids.     It  would  almost  appear  that  man 


THE  MAN   OF  THE  WORLD  49 

is  exclusively  imaginative  and  poetical;  and  that  his  matf^, 
the  fair,  the  graceful,  the  bewitching,  with  the  sweetest 
and  purest  of  natures,  cannot  help  being  something  of  a 
groveller. 
Nataly  had  likewise  her  thoughts. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BETWEEN   A    GENERAL    MAN    OF    THE    WORLD    AND    A 
PROFESSIONAL 

Rather  earlier  in  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  Simeon 
Feneilan,  thinking  of  the  many  things  which  are  nothing, 
and  so  melancholy  for  lack  of  amusements  properly  to 
follow  Old  Veuve,  that  he  could  ask  himself  whether  he 
had  not  done  a  deed  of  night,  to  be  blinking  at  his  fellow- 
men  like  an  owl  all  mad  for  the  reveller's  hoots  and  flights 
and  mice  and  moony  roundels  behind  his  hypocritical 
judex  air  of  moping  composure,  chanced  on  Mr.  Carling, 
the  solicitor,  where  Lincoln's  Inn  pumps  lawyers  into 
Fleet  Street  through  the  drain-pipe  of  Chancery  Lane. 
He  was  in  the  state  of  the  wine  when  a  shake  will  rouse 
the  sluggish  sparkles  to  foam.  Sight  of  Mrs.  Burman's 
legal  adviser  had  instantly  this  effect  upon  him :  his  bub- 
bling friendliness  for  Victor  Radnor,  and  the  desire  of  the 
voice  in  his  bosom  for  ears  to  hear,  combined  like  the  rush 
of  two  waves  together,  upon  which  he  may  be  figured  as 
the  boat:  he  caught  at  Mr.  Carling's  hand  more  heartily 
than  their  acquaintanceship  quite  sanctioned;  but  his 
grasp  and  his  look  of  overflowing  were  immediately  privi- 
leged; Mr.  Carling,  enjoying  this  anecdotal  gentleman's 
conversation  as  he  did,  liked  the  warmth,  and  was  flat- 
tered during  the  squeeze  with  a  prospect  of  his  wife  and 
friends  partaking  of  the  fun  from  time  to  time. 

"I  was  telling  my  wife  yesterday  your  story  of  the  lady 
contrabandist:  I  don't  think  she  has  done  laughing  since," 
Mr.  Carling  said. 

Feneilan  fluted:  "Ah?"  He  had  scent,  in  the  eulogy 
of  a  story  grown  flat  as  Election  hats,  of  a  good  sort  of 

4 


50  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS 

man  in  the  way  of  men,  a  step  or  two  behind  the  man  of 
the  world.  He  expressed  profound  regret  at  not  having 
heard  the  silvery  ring  of  the  lady's  laughter. 

Carling  genially  conceived  a  real  gratification  to  be  con- 
ferred on  his  wife.  "  Perhaps  you  will  some  day  honour 
us?" 

"You  spread  gold-leaf  over  the  days  to  come,  sir." 

"Now,  if  I  might  name  the  day  ?  " 

"  You  lump  the  gold  and  make  it  current  coin ;  ■ —  says 
the  blushing  bride,  who  ought  not  to  have  delivered  herself 
so  boldly,  but  she  had  forgotten  her  bashful  part  and  spoilt 
the  scene,  though,  luckily  for  the  damsel,  her  swain  was  a 
lover  of  nature,  and  finding  her  at  full  charge,  he  named 
the  very  next  day  of  the  year,  and  held  her  to  it,  like  the 
complimentary  tyrant  he  was." 

"To-morrow,  then!  "  said  Carling  intrepidly,  on  a  dash 
of  enthusiasm,  through  a  haggard  thought  of  his  wife  and 
the  cook  and  the  netting  of  friends  at  short  notice.  He 
urged  his  eagerness  to  ask  whether  he  might  indeed  have 
the  satisfaction  of  naming  to-morrow. 

"With  happiness,"  Fenellan  responded. 

Mrs.  Carling  was  therefore  in  for  it. 

"To-morrow,  half -past  seven:  as  for  company  to  meet 
you,  we  will  do  what  we  can.     You  go  Westward  ?  " 

"To  bed  with  the  sun,"  said  the  reveller. 

" Perhaps  by  Covent  Garden  ?    I  must  give  orders  there." 

"Orders  given  in  Covent  Garden,  paint  a  picture  for 
bachelors  of  the  domestic  Paradise  an  angel  must  help 
them  to  enter!  Ah,  dear  me!  Is  there  anything  on  earth 
to  compare  with  the  pride  of  a  virtuous  life  ?  " 

"I  was  married  at  four  and  twenty,"  said  Carling,  as 
one  taking  up  the  expository  second  verse  of  a  poem; 
plain  facts,  but  weighty  and  necessary :  "  my  wife  was  in 
her  twentieth  year :  we  have  five  children ;  two  sons,  three 
daughters,  one  married,  with  a  baby.  So  we  are  grand- 
father and  mother,  and  have  never  regretted  the  first  step, 
I  may  say  for  both  of  us." 

"Think  of  it!  Good  luck  and  sagacity  joined  hands 
overhead  on  the  day  you  proposed  to  the  lady:  and  IM 
say,  that  all  the  credit  is  with  her,  but  that  it  would 
seem  to  be  at  the  expense  of  her  sex." 


THE   MAN   OF    THE   WORLD  51 

"She  would  be  the  last  to  wish  it,  I  assure  you." 

"True  of  all  good  women!  You  encourage  nie,  touching 
a  matter  of  deep  interest,  not  unknown  to  you.  The  lady's 
warm  heart  will  be  with  us.  Probably  she  sees  Mrs. 
Burman  ?  " 

"Mrs.  Burman  Eadnor  receives  no  one." 

A  comic  severity  in  the  tone  of  the  correction  was  defer- 
entially accepted  by  Fenellan. 

"Pardon.  She  iiies  her  flag,  with  her  captain  wanting; 
and  she  has,  queerly,  the  right.  So,  then,  the  worthy  dame 
who  receives  no  one,  might  be  treated,  it  struck  us,  con- 
versationally, as  a  respectable  harbour-hulk,  with  more  his- 
tory than  top-honours.  But  she  has  the  indubitable  legal 
right  to  fly  them  —  to  proclaim  it ;  for  it  means  little 
else." 

"  You  would  have  her,  if  I  follow  you,  divest  herself  of 
the  name  ?  " 

"Pin  me  to  no  significations,  if  you  please,  O  shrewdest 
of  the  legal  sort!  I  have  wit  enough  to  escape  you  there. 
She  is  no  doubt  an  estimable  person." 

"Well,  she  is;  she  is  in  her  way  a  very  good  woman." 

"Ah.  You  see,  Mr.  Carling,  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
rank  her  beside  another  lady,  who  has  already  claimed  the 
title  of  me ;  and  you  will  forgive  me  if  I  say,  that  your 
word  *  good  '  has  a  look  of  being  stuck  upon  the  features 
we  know  of  her,  like  a  coquette's  naughty  patch;  or  it 's  a 
jewel  of  an  eye  in  an  ebony  idol :  though  I  've  heard  tell 
she  performs  her  charities." 

"I  believe  she  gives  away  three  parts  of  her  income: 
and  that  is  large." 

"Leaving  the  good  lady  a  fine  fafc  fourth." 

"Compare  her  with  other  wealthy  people." 

"  And  does  she  outshine  the  majority  still  with  her  per- 
sonal attractions  ?  " 

Carling  was  instigated  by  the  praise  he  had  bestowed  on 
his  wife  to  separate  himself  from  a  female  pretender  so 
ludicrous ;  he  sought  Fenellan's  nearest  ear,  emitting  the 
sound  of  "hum." 

"  In  other  respects,  unimpeachable  I " 

"Oh!  quite!" 

"There  was  a  fishfag  of  classic  Billingsgate,  who  had 


52  OXE    OF   OUK   CONQUBKORS 

broken  her  husband's  nose  with  a  sledgehammer  fist,  and 
swore  before  the  magistrate,  that  the  man  had  n't  a  crease 
to  complain  of  in  her  character.  We  are  condemned,  Mr. 
Carling,  sometimes  to  suffer  in  the  flesh  for  the  assur- 
ance we  receive  of  the  inviolability  of  those  moral 
fortifications." 

"Character,  yes,  valuable  —  I  do  wish  you  had  named 
to-night  for  doing  me  the  honour  of  dining  with  me!  "  said 
the  lawyer  impulsively,  in  a  rapture  of  the  appetite  for 
anecdotes.     "I  have  a  ripe  Pichon  Longueville,  '65." 

"  A  fine  wine.  Seductive  to  hear  of.  I  dine  with  my 
friend  Victor  Eadnor.  And  he  knows  wine.  —  There  are 
good  women  in  the  world,  Mr.  Carling,  whose  charac- 
ters ..." 

"Of  course,  of  course  there  are;  and  I  could  name  you 
some.     We  lawyers!  ..." 

"You  encounter  all  sorts." 

"Between  ourselves,"  Carling  sank  his  tones  to  the  in- 
discriminate, where  it  mingled  with  the  roar  of  London. 

"You  do  ?"  Fenellan  hazarded  a  guess  at  having  heard 
enlightened  liberal  opinions  regarding  the  sex.     "  Eight ! " 

"Many!" 

"I  back  you,  Mr.  Carling." 

The  lawyer  pushed  to  yet  more  confidential  communica- 
tion, up  to  the  verge  of  the  clearly  audible:  he  spoke  of 
examples,  experiences.     Fenellan  backed  him  further. 

"Acting  on  behalf  of  clients,  you  understand,  Mr. 
Fenellan." 

"Professional,  but  charitable;  I  am  with  you." 

"Poor  things!  we  —  if  we  have  to  condemn  —  we  owe 
them  something." 

"  A  kind  word  for  poor  Polly  Venus,  with  all  the  world 
against  her!     She  does  n't  hear  it  often." 

"A  real  service,"  Carling's  voice  deepened  to  the  legal 
"  without  prejudice,"  —  "I  am  bound  to  say  it  —  a  service 
to  Society." 

"  Ah,  poor  wench!     And  the  kind  of  reward  she  gets  ? " 

"  We  can  hardly  examine  .  .  .  mysterious  dispensa- 
tions .   .  .  here  we  are  to  make  the  best  we  can  of  it." 

"For  the  creature  Society 's  indebted  to?  True.  And 
am  I  to  think  there  's  a  body  of  legal  gentlemen  to  join 


THE  ^lAl^  OF  THE  WORLD  53 

with  you,  my  friend,  in  founding  an  Institution  to  dis- 
tribute funds  to  preach  charity  over  the  country,  and  win 
compassion  for  her,  as  one  of  the  principal  persons  of  her 
time,  that  Society  's  indebted  to  for  whatever  it 's  indebted 
for  ?  " 

"Scarcely  that,"  said  Carling,  contracting. 

"  But  you  're  for  great  Reforms  ?  '^ 

"Gradual." 

"Then  it 's  for  Reformatories,  mayhap." 

"They  would  hardly  be  a  cure." 

"You  're  in  search  of  a  cure  ?  " 

"It  would  be  a  blessed  discovery." 

"But  what 's  to  become  of  Society  ?  " 

"It 's  a  puzzle  to  the  cleverest." 

"  All  through  History,  my  dear  Mr.  Carling,  we  see  that 
Establishments  must  have  their  sacrifices.  Beware  of 
interfering:  eh  ?" 

"By  degrees,  we  may  hope  ..." 

"Society  prudently  shuns  the  topic;  and  so '11  we.  For 
we  might  tell  of  one  another,  in  a  fit  of  distraction,  that 
t'  other  one  talked  of  it,  and  we  should  be  banished  for  an 
offence  against  propriety.  You  should  read  my  friend 
Durance's  Essay  on  Society.  Lawyers  are  a  buttress  of 
Society.  But,  come :  I  wager  they  don't  know  what  they 
support  until  they  read  that  Essay." 

Carling  had  a  pleasant  sense  of  escape,  in  not  being  per- 
sonally asked  to  read  the  Essay,  and  not  hearing  that  a 
copy  of  it  should  be  forwarded  to  him. 

He  said :  "'  Mr.  Radnor  is  a  very  old  friend  ?  " 

"Our  fathers  were  friends;  they  served  in  the  same 
regiment  for  years.  I  was  in  India  when  Victor  Radnor 
took  the  fatal!" 

"  Followed  by  a  second,  not  less  .  .  .  ?  " 

"In  the  interpretation  of  a  rigid  morality  arming  you 
legal  gentlemen  to  make  it  so !  " 

"The  Law  must  be  vindicated." 

"The  law  is  a  clumsy  bludgeon." 

"We  think  it  the  highest  effort  of  human  reason  —  the 
practical  instrument." 

"You  may  compare  it  to  a  rustic's  finger  on  a  fiddle- 
string,  for  the  murdered  notes  you  get  out  of  the  practical 
instrument." 


64  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQUERORS 

"I  am  bound  to  defend  it,  clumsy  bludgeon  or  not." 

"  You  are  one  of  the  giants  to  wield  it,  and  feel  humanly, 
when,  by  chance,  down  it  comes  on  the  foot  an  inch  off 
the  line.  —  Here  's  a  peep  of  Old  London;  if  the  habit  of 
old  was  not  to  wash  windows.     I  like  these  old  streets." 

"Hum,"  Carling  hesitated.  "I  can  remember  when  the 
dirt  at  the  windows  was  appalling." 

"Appealing  to  the  same  kind  of  stuff  in  the  passing 
youngster's  green-scum  eye:  it  was.  And  there  your  Law 
did  good  work.  —  You  're  for  Bordeaux.  What  is  your 
word  on  Burgundy  ?  " 

"  Our  Falernian !  " 

"Victor  Radnor  has  the  oldest  in  the  kingdom.  But  he 
will  have  the  best  of  everything.  A  Eomanee !  A 
Musigny !  Sip,  my  friend,  you  embrace  the  Goddess  of 
your  choice  above.  You  are  up  beside  her  at  a  sniff  of 
that  wine.  —  And  lo,  venerable  Drury  !  we  duck  through 
the  court,  reminded  a  bit  by  our  feelings  of  our  first  love, 
who  had  n't  the  cleanest  of  faces  or  nicest  of  manners,  but 
she  takes  her  station  in  memory  because  we  were  boys 
then,  and  the  golden  halo  of  youth  is  upon  her." 

Carling,  as  a  man  of  the  world,  acquiesced  in  souvenirs 
he  did  not  share.  He  said  urgently:  "Understand  me; 
you  speak  of  Mr.  Radnor;  pray,  believe  I  have  the  great- 
est respect  for  Mr.  Radnor's  abilities.  He  is  one  of  our 
foremost  men  .  .  .  proud  of  him.  Mr.  Radnor  has  genius ; 
I  have  watched  him ;  it  is  genius ;  he  shows  it  in  all  he 
does;  one  of  the  memorable  men  of  our  time.  I  can 
admire  him,  independent  of  —  well,  misfortunes  of  that 
kind  ...  a  mistaken  early  step.  Misfortune,  it  is  to  be 
named.  Between  ourselves  —  we  are  men  of  the  world  — 
if  one  could  see  the  way !  She  occasionally  ...  as  I 
have  told  you.  I  have  ventured  suggestions.  As  I  have 
mentioned,  I  have  received  an  impression  ..." 

"  But  still,  Mr.  Carling,  if  the  lady  does  n't  release  him 
and  will  keep  his  name,  she  might  stop  her  cowardly 
persecutions." 

"  Can  yon  trace  them  ?  " 

"  Undisguised !  " 

'*Mr8.  Burman  Radnor  is  devout.  I  should  not  exactly 
say  revengeful.     We  have  to  discriminate.     I  gather,  that 


THE  ISIAN  OF  THE  WORLD  65 

her  animus  is,  in  all  honesty,  directed  at  the  —  I  quote  — ■ 
state  of  sin.     We  are  mixed,  you  know." 

The  Winegod  in  the  blood  of  Fenellan  gave  a  leap. 
"But,  fifty  thousand  times  more  mixed,  she  might  any 
moment  stop  the  state  of  sin,  as  she  calls  it,  if  it  pleased 
her." 

"  She  might  try.  Our  Judges  look  suspiciously  on  long- 
delayed  actions.  And  there  are,  too,  women  who  regard 
the  marriage-tie  as  indissoluble.  She  has  had  to  combat 
that  scruple." 

"  Believer  in  the  renewing  of  the  engagement  overhead  ! 
—  well.  But  put  a  by-word  to  Mother  Nature  about  the 
state  of  sin.  Where,  do  you  imagine,  she  would  lay  it  ? 
You  '11  say,  that  Nature  and  Law  never  agreed.  They 
ought." 

"The  latter  deferring  to  the  former  ?  " 

"  Moulding  itself  on  her  swelling  proportions.  My  dear 
dear  sir,  the  state  of  sin  was  the  continuing  to  live  in 
defiance  of,  in  contempt  of,  in  violation  of,  in  the  total 
degradation  of,  Nature." 

"  He  was  under  no  enforcement  to  take  the  oath  at  the 
altar." 

"He  was  a  small  boy  tempted  by  a  varnished  widow, 
with  pounds  of  barley -sugar  in  her  pocket;  —  and  she 
already  serving  as  a  test-vessel  or  mortar  for  awful  com- 
binations in  druggery!  Gilt  widows  are  equal  to  decrees 
of  Fate  to  us  young  ones.  Upon  my  word,  the  cleric  who 
unites,  and  the  Law  that  sanctions,  they  're  the  criminals. 
Victor  Eadnor  is  the  noblest  of  fellows,  the  very  best 
friend  a  man  can  have.  I  will  tell  you:  he  saved  me, 
after  I  left  the  army,  from  living  on  the  produce  of  my 
pen  — ■  which  means,  if  there  is  to  be  any  produce,  the  pros- 
trating of  yourself  to  the  level  of  the  round  middle  of  the 
public:  saved  me  from  that!  Yes,  Mr.  Carling,  I  have 
trotted  our  thoroughfares  a  poor  Polly  of  the  pen;  and 
it  is  owing  to  Victor  Radnor  that  I  can  order  my  thoughts 
as  an  individual  man  again  before  I  blacken  paper.  Owing 
to  him,  I  have  a  tenderness  for  mercenaries;  having  been 
one  of  them  and  knowing  how  little  we  can  help  it.  He 
is  an  Olympian  —  who  thinks  of  them  below.  The  lady 
also  is  an  admirable  woman  at  all  points.     The  pair  are  a 


56  OKE  OF  OUR  CONQTTEROES 

mated  couple,  such  as  you  won't  find  in  ten  households  over 
Christendom.     Are  you  aware  of  the  story  ?  " 

Carling  replied :  "  A  story  under  shadow  of  the  Law  has 
generally  two  very  distinct  versions." 

"  Hear  mine.  —  And,  by  Jove  !  a  runaway  cab.  No,  all 
right.  But  a  crazy  cab  it  is,  and  fit  to  do  mischief  in  nar- 
row Drury.  Except  that  it 's  sheer  riff-raff  here  to  knock 
over." 

"  Hulloa  ?  —  come !  "  quoth  the  wary  lawyer. 

"There  's  the  heart  I  wanted  to  rouse  to  hear  me!  One 
may  be  sure  that  the  man  for  old  Burgundy  has  it  big  and 
sound,  in  spite  of  his  legal  practices ;  a  dear  good  spherical 
fellow!  Some  day,  we  '11  hope,  you  will  be  sitting  with  us 
over  a  magnum  of  Victor  Kadnor's  Romanee  Conti  aged 
thirty-one:  a  wine,  you'll  say  at  the  second  glass,  High 
Priest  for  the  celebration  of  the  uncommon  nuptials  be- 
tween the  body  and  the  soul  of  man." 

"You  hit  me  rightly,"  said  Carling,  tickled  and  touched; 
sensually  excited  by  the  bouquet  of  Victor  Iladnor's  hos- 
pitality and  companionship,  which  added  flavour  to  Fen- 
ellan's  compliments.  These  came  home  to  him  through 
his  desire  to  be  the  "  good  spherical  fellow ; "  for  he,  like 
modern  diplomatists  in  the  track  of  their  eminent  Ber- 
linese  New  Type  of  the  time,  put  on  frankness  as  an 
armour  over  wariness,  holding  craft  in  reserve:  his  aim 
was  at  the  refreshment  of  honest  fellowship :  by  no  means 
to  discover  that  the  coupling  of  his  native  bias  with  his 
professional  duty  was  unprofitable  nowadays.  Wariness, 
however,  was  not  somnolent,  even  when  he  said:  "You 
know,  I  am  never  the  lawyer  out  of  my  office.  Man  of  the 
world  to  men  of  the  world;  and  I  have  not  lost  by  it.  I 
am  Mrs.  Burman  Eadnor's  legal  adviser:  you  are  Mr. 
Victor  Radnor's  friend.  They  are,  as  we  see  them,  not  en 
the  best  of  terms.  I  would  rather  —  at  its  lowest,  as  a 
matter  of  business  —  be  known  for  having  helped  them  to 
some  kind  of  footing  than  send  in  a  round  bill  to  my  client 
—  or  another.  I  gain  more  in  the  end.  Frankly,  I  mean 
to  prove,  that  it 's  a  lawyer's  interest  to  bo  human." 

"Because,  now,  see!"  said  Fenellan,  "here's  the  case. 
Miss  Natalia  Dreighton,  of  a  good  Yorkshire  family  —  a 
large  one,  reads  an  advertisement  for  the  post  of  compan- 


1?HE  MAK   OF  'fHE  WORLD  67 

ion  to  a  lady,  and  answers  it,  and  engages  herself,  previous 
to  the  appearance  of  the  young  husband.  Miss  Dreighton 
is  one  of  the  finest  young  women  alive.  She  has  a  glori- 
ous contralto  voice.  Victor  and  she  are  encouraged  by 
Mrs.  Burman  to  sing  duets  together.  Well  ?  Why,  Euclid 
would  have  theorem'd  it  out  for  you  at  a  glance  at  the  trio. 
You  have  only  to  look  on  them ,  you  chatter  out  your  three 
Acts  of  a  Drama  without  a  stop.  If  Mrs.  Burman  cares 
to  practise  charity,  she  has  only  to  hold  in  her  Fury- 
forked  tongue,  or  her  Jarniman  I  think  's  the  name  ..." 

Carling  shrugged. 

"Let  her  keep  from  striking,  if  she's  Christian, '^  pur- 
sued Fenellan,  "and  if  kind  let  her  resume  the  name  of 
her  first  lord,  who  did  a  better  thing  for  himself  than  for 
her,  when  he  shook  off  his  bars  of  bullion,  to  rise  the 
lighter,  and  left  a  wretched  female  soul  below,  with  the 
devil's  own  testimony  to  her  attractions  —  thousands  in 
the  Funds,  houses  in  the  City.  She  threw  the  young 
couple  together.  And  my  friend  Victor  Eadnor  is  of  a 
particularly  inflammable  nature.  Imagine  one  of  us  in 
such  a  situation,  Mr.  Carling ! " 

"  Trying !  "  said  the  lawyer. 

"  The  dear  fellow  was  as  nigh  death  as  a  man  can  be  and 
know  the  sweetness  of  a  woman's  call  to  him  to  live.  — 
And  here's  London's  garden  of  pines,  bananas,  oranges; 
all  the  droppings  of  the  Hesperides  here !  We  don't  re- 
flect on  it,  Mr.  Carling." 

"Not  enough,  not  enough." 

"  I  feel  such  a  spout  of  platitudes  that  I  could  out  with 
a  Leading  Article  on  a  sheet  of  paper  on  your  back  while 
you  're  bending  over  the  baskets.  I  seem  to  have  got 
circularly  round  again  to  Eden  when  I  enter  a  garden. 
Only,  here  we  have  to  pay  for  the*  fruits  we  pluck.  Well, 
and  just  the  same  there ;  and  no  end  to  the  payment  either. 
We  're  always  paying !  By  the  way,  Mrs.  Victor  Kadnor's 
dinner-table  's  a  spectacle.  Her  taste  in  flowers  equals  her 
lord  's  in  wine.  But  age  improves  the  wine  and  spoils  the 
flowers,  you  '11  say.  Maybe  you  're  for  arguing  that  lovely 
women  show  us  more  of  the  flower  than  the  grape,  in 
relation  to  the  course  of  time.  I  pray  you  not  to  forget 
the  terrible  intoxicant  she  is.     We  reconcile  it,  Mr.  Car- 


58  ONE  OF  OtJR  CONQUEROKS 

ling,  with  the  notion  that  the  grape 's  her  spirit,  the  flower 
her  body.  Or  is  it  the  reverse  ?  Perhaps  an  intertwining. 
But  look  upon  bouquets  and  clusters,  and  the  idea  of 
woman  springs  up  at  once,  proving  she  's  composed  of 
them.  I  was  about  to  remark,  that  with  deference  to  the 
influence  of  Mrs.  Burman's  legal  adviser,  an  impenitent 
or  penitent  sinner's  pastor,  the  Eeverend  gentleman 
ministering  to  her  spiritual  needs,  would  presumptively 
exercise  it,  in  this  instance,  in  a  superior  degree." 

Carling  murmured :  "The  Rev.  Groseman  Buttermore;  " 
and  did  so  for  something  of  a  cover,  to  continue  a  run  of 
internal  reflections :  as,  that  he  was  assuredly  listening  to 
vinous  talk  in  the  streets  by  day ;  which  impression  placed 
him  on  a  decorous  platform  above  the  amusing  gentleman ; 
to  whom,  however,  he  grew  cordial,  in  recognizing  conse- 
quently, that  his  exuberant  flow  could  hardly  be  a  mask; 
and  that  an  indication  here  and  there  of  a  trap  in  his  talk, 
must  have  been  due  rather  to  excess  of  wariness,  habitual 
in  the  mind  of  a  long-headed  man,  whose  incorrigibly 
impulsive  fits  had  necessarily  to  be  rectified  by  a  vigilant 
dexterity. 

"  Buttermore !  "  ejaculated  Fenellan :  "  Groseman  Butter- 
more!  Mrs.  Victor's  Father  Confessor  is  the  Rev.  Septi- 
mus Barmby.  Groseman  Buttermore  —  Septimus  Barmby. 
Is  there  anything  in  names  ?  Truly,  unless  these  clerical 
gentlemen  take  them  up  at  the  crossing  of  the  roads  long 
after  birth,  the  names  would  appear  the  active  parts  of 
them,  and  themselves  mere  marching  supports,  like  the 
bearers  of  street  placard-advertisements.  Now,  I  know 
a  Septimus  Barmby,  and  you  a  Groseman  Buttermore, 
and  beyond  the  fact  that  Reverend  starts  up  before  their 
names  without  mention,  I  wager  it 's  about  all  we  do 
know  of  them.  They  're  Society's  trusty  rock-limpets, 
no  doubt." 

"My  respect  for  the  cloth  is  extreme."  Carling's  short 
cough  prepared  the  way  for  deductions.  "Between  our- 
selves, they  are  not  men  of  the  world." 

Fenellan  eyed  benevolently  the  worthy  attorney,  whose 
innermost  imp  burst  out  periodically,  like  a  Dutch  clock- 
sentry,  to  trot  on  his  own  small  grounds  for  thinking  him- 
self of  the  community  of  the  man  of  the  world.     "You 


d?HE  MAN  OF  1?llE  WORLD  5d 

lawyers  dress  in  another  closet,"  lie  said.  "The  Rev. 
Groseman  has  the  ear  of  the  lady  ?  " 

" He  has :  —  one  ear." 

"  Ah  ?  She  has  the  other  open  for  a  man  of  the  world, 
perhaps." 

"  Listens  to  him,  listens  to  me,  listens  to  Jarniman ;  and 
we  neither  of  us  guide  her.  She 's  very  curious  —  a  study. 
You  think  you  know  her  —  next  day  she  has  eluded  you. 
She 's  emotional,  she 's  hard;  she 's  a  woman,  she 's  a  stone. 
Anything  you  like;  but  don't  count  on  her.  And  another 
thing  —  I  'm  bound  to  say  it  of  myself,"  Carling  claimed 
close  hearing  of  Fenellan  over  a  shelf  of  salad-stuff,  "  no 
one  who  comes  near  her  has  any  real  weight  with  her  in 
this  matter." 

"  Probably  you  mix  cream  in  your  salad  of  the  vinegar 
and  oil,"  said  Fenellan.     "  Try  jelly  of  mutton." 

"  You  give  me  a  new  idea.  Latterly,  fond  as  I  am  of 
salads,  I  We  had  rueful  qualms.     We  '11  try  it." 

"You  should  dine  with  Victor  Radnor." 

"French  cook,  of  course." 

"Cordon  bleu." 

"I  like  to  be  sure  of  my  cutlet." 

"I  like  to  be  sure  of  a  tastiness  iu  my  vegetables." 

"  And  good  sauces  ! " 

"  And  pretty  pastry.  I  said.  Cordon  bleu.  The  miracle 
is,  it 's  a  woman  that  Victor  Radnor  has  trained:  French, 
but  a  woman;  devoted  to  him,  as  all  who  serve  him  are. 
Do  I  say  *  but '  a  woman  ?  There  's  not  a  Frenchman  alive 
to  match  her.  Vatel  awaits  her  in  Paradise  with  his  arms 
extended :  and  may  he  wait  long  !  " 

Carling  indulged  his  passion  for  the  genuine  by  letting 
a  flutter  of  real  envy  be  seen.  "  My  wife  would  like  to 
meet  such  a  Frenchwoman.  It  must  be  a  privilege  to  dine 
with  him  —  to  know  him.  I  know  what  he  has  done  for 
English  Commerce,  and  to  build  a  colossal  fortune:  genius, 
as  I  said:  and  his  donations  to  Institutions.  Odd,  to  read 
his  name  and  Mrs.  Burman  Radnor's  at  separate  places  in 
the  lists  !  Well,  we  '11  hope.  It 's  a  case  for  a  compromise 
of  sentiments  and  claims." 

"A  friend  of  mine,  spiced  with  cynic,  declares  that 
there 's  always  an  amicable  way  out  of  a  dissension,  if  we 
get  rid  of  Lupus  and  Vulpus." 


60  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

Calling  spied  for  a  trap  in  the  citation  of  Lupus  and 
Vulpus;  he  saw  none,  and  named  the  square  of  his  resi- 
dence on  the  great  Russell  property,  and  the  number  of  the 
house,  the  hour  of  dinner  next  day.  He  then  hung  silent, 
breaking  the  pause  with  his  hand  out  and  a  sharp  "  Well  ?  " 
that  rattled  a  whirligig  sound  in  his  head  upward.  His 
leave  of  people  was  taken  in  this  laughing  falsetto,  as  of 
one  affected  by  the  curious  end  things  come  to. 

Fenellan  thought  of  him  for  a  moment  or  two,  that  he 
was  a  better  than  the  common  kind  of  lawyer;  who  doubt- 
less knew  as  much  of  the  wrong  side  of  the  world  as  law- 
yers do,  and  held  his  knowledge  for  the  being  a  man  of 
the  world :  —  as  all  do,  that  have  not  Alpine  heights  in  the 
mind  to  mount  for  a  look  out  over  their  own  and  the  world's 
pedestrian  tracks.  I  could  spot  the  lawyer  in  your  compo- 
sition, my  friend,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  man,  he  mused. 
But  you  're  right  in  what  you  mean  to  say  of  yourself : 
you  're  a  good  fellow,  for  a  lawyer,  and  together  we  may 
manage  somehow  to  score  a  point  of  service  to  Victor 
Radnor. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SOME   FAMILIAR    GUESTS 


Nesta  read  her  mother's  face  when  Mrs.  Victor  entered 
the  drawing-room  to  receive  the  guests.  She  saw  a  smooth 
fair  surface,  of  the  kind  as  much  required  by  her  father's 
eyes  as  innocuous  air  by  his  nostrils :  and  it  was  honest 
skin,  not  the  deceptive  feminine  veiling,  to  make  a  dear 
man  happy  over  his  volcano.  Mrs.  Victor  was  to  meet  the 
friends  with  whom  her  feelings  were  at  home,  among 
whom  her  musical  gifts  gave  her  station:  they  liked  her 
for  herself;  they  helped  her  to  feel  at  home  with  herself 
and  be  herself:  a  rarer  condition  with  us  all  than  is  gen- 
erally supposed.  So  she  could  determine  to  be  cheerful  in 
the  anticipation  of  an  evening  that  would  at  least  be  rest- 
ful to  the  outworn  sentinel  nerve  of  her  heart,  which  was 
perpetually  alert  and  signalling  to  the  great  organ ;  often 


SOME  FAMILIAR  GUESTS  61 

colouring  the  shows  and  seems  of  adverse  things  for  an 
apeing  of  reality  with  too  cruel  a  resemblance.  One  of 
the  scraps  of  practical  wisdom  gained  by  hardened  suli'er- 
ers  is,  to  keep  from  spying  at  horizons  when  they  drop 
into  a  pleasant  dingle.  Such  is  the  comfort  of  it,  that  we 
can  dream,  and  lull  our  fears,  and  half  think  what  we  wish : 
and  it  is  a  heavenly  truce  with  the  fretful  mind  divided 
from  our  wishes. 

Nesta  wondered  at  her  mother's  complacent  questions 
concerning  this  Lakelands :  the  house,  the  county,  the  kind 
of  people  about,  the  features  of  the  country.  Physically 
unable  herself  to  be  regretful  under  a  burden  three  parts 
enrapturing  her,  the  girl  expected  her  mother  to  display  a 
shadowy  vexation,  with  a  proud  word  or  two,  that  would 
summon  her  thrilling  sympathy  in  regard  to  the  fourth 
part :  namely,  the  aristocratic  iciness  of  country  magnates , 
who  took  them  up  and  cast  them  off;  as  they  had  done, 
she  thought,  at  Craye  Farm  and  at  Creckholt:  she  remem- 
bered it,  of  the  latter  place,  wincingly,  insurgently,  having 
loved  the  dear  home  she  had  been  expelled  from  by  the 
pride  of  the  frosty  surrounding  people  —  or  no,  not  all, 
but  some  of  them.     And  what  had  roused  their  pride  ? 

Striking  for  a  reason,  her  inexperience  of  our  modern 
England,  supplemented  by  readings  in  the  England  of  a 
preceding  generation,  had  hit  on  her  father's  profession  of 
merchant.  It  accounted  to  her  for  the  behaviour  of  the 
haughty  territorial  and  titled  families.  But  certain  of  the 
minor  titles  headed  City  Firms,  she  had  heard ;  certain  of 
the  families  were  avowedly  commercial.  "They  follow 
suit,''  her  father  said  at  Creckholt,  after  he  had  found  her 
mother  weeping,  and  decided  instantly  to  quit  and  fly  once 
more.  But  if  they  followed  suit  in  such  a  way,  then  Mr. 
Durance  must  be  right  when  he  called  the  social  English 
the  most  sheepy  of  sheep :  —  and  Nesta  could  not  consent 
to  the  cruel  verdict,  she  adored  her  compatriots.  Incon- 
gruities were  pacified  for  her  by  the  suggestion  of  her  quick 
wits,  that  her  father,  besides  being  a  merchant,  was  a  suc- 
cessful speculator ;  and  perhaps  the  speculator  is  not  liked 
by  merchants ;  or  they  were  jealous  of  him ;  or  they  did 
not  like  his  being  both. 

She  pardoned  them  with  some  tenderness,  on  a  suspicioi; 


62  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

that  a  quaint  old  high-frilled  bleached  and  puckered  Puri- 
tanical rectitude  (her  thoughts  rose  in  pictures)  possibly 
condemned  the  speculator  as  a  description  of  gambler.  An 
erratic  severity  in  ethics  is  easily  overlooked  by  the  enthu- 
siast for  things  old  English.  She  was  consciously  ahead  of 
them  in  the  knowledge  that  her  father  had  been,  without 
the  taint  of  gambling,  a  beneficent  speculator.  The  Mont- 
gomery colony  in  South  Africa,  and  his  dealings  with  the 
natives  in  India,  and  his  Railways  in  South  America,  his 
establishment  of  Insurance  Offices,  which  were  Savings 
Banks,  and  the  Stores  for  the  dispensing  of  sound  goods  to 
the  poor,  attested  it.  0  and  he  was  hospitable,  the  kindest, 
helpfullest  of  friends,  the  dearest,  the  very  brightest  of 
parents ;  he  was  his  givVs  playmate.  She  could  be  critic  of 
him,  for  an  induction  to  the  loving  of  him  more  justly :  yet 
if  he  had  an  excessive  desire  to  win  the  esteem  of  people, 
as  these  keen  young  optics  perceived  in  him,  he  strove  to 
deserve  it:  and  no  one  could  accuse  him  of  laying  stress  on 
the  benefits  he  conferred.  Designedly,  frigidly  to  wound  a 
man  so  benevolent,  appeared  to  her  as  an  incomprehensible 
baseness.  The  dropping  of  acquaintanceship  with  him, 
after  the  taste  of  its  privileges,  she  ascribed,  in  the  void  of 
any  better  elucidation,  to  a  mania  of  aristocratic  conceit. 
It  drove  her,  despite  her  youthful  contempt  of  politics,  into 
a  Radicalism  that  could  find  food  in  the  epigrams  of  Mr. 
Colney  Durance,  even  when  they  passed  her  understanding ; 
or  when  he  was  not  too  distinctly  seen  by  her  to  be  shoot- 
ing at  all  the  parties  of  her  beloved  England,  beneath  the 
wicked  semblance  of  shielding  each  by  turns. 

The  young  gentleman  introduced  to  the  Radnor  Concert- 
parties  by  Lady  Grace  Halley  as  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby, 
had  to  bear  the  sins  of  his  class.  Though  he  was  tall, 
straight-featured,  correct  in  costume,  appearance,  deport- 
ment, second  son  of  a  religious  earl  and  no  scandal  to  the 
parentage,  he  was  less  noticed  by  Nesta  than  the  elderly 
and  the  commoners.  Her  father  accused  her  of  snubbing 
him.  She  reproduced  her  famous  copy  of  the  sugared  acid 
of  Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby's  closed  mouth :  a  sort  of  sneer  in 
meekness,  as  of  humility  under  legitimate  compulsion ; 
deploring  Christianly  a  pride  of  race  that  stamped  it  for 
this  cowled  exhibition :  the  wonderful  mimicry  was  a  flash 


SOME  FAIMILIAR  GUESTS  63 

thrown  out  by  a  born  mistress  of  the  art,  and  her  mother 
was  constrained  to  laugh,  and  so  was  her  father;  but  he 
wilfully  denied  the  likeness.  He  charged  her  with  encourag- 
ing Colney  Durance  to  drag  forth  the  sprig  of  nobility,  in 
the  nakedness  of  evicted  shell-fish,  on  themes  of  the  peril 
to  England,  possibly  ruin,  through  the  loss  of  that  ruling 
initiative  formerly  possessed,  in  the  days  of  our  glory,  by 
the  titular  nobles  of  the  land.  Colney  spoke  it  effectively, 
and  the  Hon.  Dudley's  expressive  lineaments  showed  print 
of  the  heaving  word  Alas,  as  when  a  target  is  penetrated 
centrally.  And  he  was  not  a  particularly  dull  fellow  "  for 
his  class  and  country,"  Colney  admitted ;  adding :  "  I  hit 
his  thought  and  out  he  came.''  One  has,  reluctantly  with 
Victor  Radnor,  to  grant,  that  when  a  man's  topmost  un- 
spoken thought  is  hit,  he  must  be  sharp  on  his  guard  to 
keep  from  coming  out :  —  we  have  won  a  right  to  him. 

"  Ouly,  it 's  too  bad ;  it 's  a  breach  of  hospitalit}^,"  Victor 
said,  both  to  Nesta  and  to  Nataly,  alluding  to  several 
instances  of  Colney's  ironic  handling  of  their  guests,  espe- 
cially of  this  one,  whom  Nesta  would  attack,  and  Nataly 
would  not  defend. 

They  were  alive  at  a  signal  to  protect  the  others.  Miss 
Priscilla  Graves,  an  eater  of  meat,  was  ridiculous  in  her 
ant'alcoholic  exclusiveness  and  scorn:  Mr.  Pempton,  a 
drinker  of  wine,  would  laud  extravagantly  the  more  trans- 
parent purity  of  vegetarianism.  Dr.  Peter  Yatt  jeered  at 
globules :  Dr.  John  Cormyn  mourned  over  human  creatures 
treated  as  cattle  by  big  doses.  The  Eev.  Septimus  Barmby 
satisfactorily  smoked:  Mr.  Peridon  traced  mortal  evil  to 
that  act.  Dr.  Schlesien  had  his  German  views,  Colney 
Durance  his  ironic,  Fenellan  his  fanciful  and  free-lance. 
And  here  was  an  optimist,  there  a  pessimist ;  and  the  rank 
Radical,  the  rigid  Conservative,  were  not  wanting.  All  of 
them  were  pointedly  opposed,  extraordinarily  for  so  small  an 
assembly :  absurdly,  it  might  be  thought :  but  these  pro- 
voked a  kind  warm  smile,  with  the  exclamation:  "  They  are 
dears ! "     They  were  the  dearer  for  their  fads  and  foibles. 

Music  harmonized  them.  Music,  strangely,  put  the  spell 
on  Colney  Durance,  the  sayer  of  bitter  things,  manufacturer 
of  prickly  balls,  in  the  form  of  Discord's  apples :  of  whom 
Fenellan  remarked,  that  he  took  to  his  music  like  an  angry 


64  ONE  OF  OTJR  CONQUEEOES 

little  boy  to  his  barley-sugar,  with  a  growl  and  a  grunt. 
All  these  diverse  friends  could  meet  and  mix  in  Victor's 
Concert-room  with  an  easy  homely  recognition  of  one 
another's  musical  qualities,  at  times  enthusiastic ;  and  their 
natural  divergencies  and  occasional  clashes  added  a  salient 
tastiness  to  the  group:  of  whom  Nesta  could  say:  "Mama, 
was  there  ever  such  a  collection  of  dear  good  souls  with  such 
contrary  minds  ?  "  Her  mother  had  the  deepest  of  reasons 
for  loving  them,  so  as  not  to  wish  to  see  the  slightest  change 
in  their  minds,  that  the  accustomed  features  making  her 
nest  of  homeliness  and  real  peace  might  be  retained,  with 
the  humour  of  their  funny  silly  antagonisms  and  the  subse- 
quent march  in  concord ;  excepting  solely  as  regarded  the 
perverseness  of  Priscilla  Graves  in  her  open  contempt  of 
Mr.  Pempton's  innocent  two  or  three  wineglasses.  The 
vegetarian  gentleman's  politeness  forbore  to  direct  attention 
to  the  gobbets  of  meat  Priscilla  consumed,  though  he  could 
express  disapproval  in  general  terms;  but  he  entertained 
sentiments  as  warlike  to  the  lady's  habit  of  "  drinking  the 
blood  of  animals."  The  mockery  of  it  was,  that  Priscilla 
liked  Mr.  Pempton  and  admired  his  violoncello-playing,  and 
he  was  unreserved  in  eulogy  of  her  person  and  her  pure 
soprano  tones.  Nataly  was  a  poetic  match-maker.  Mr. 
Peridon  was  intended  for  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles,  Nesta's 
young  French  governess  ;  a  lady  of  a  courtly  bearing,  with 
placid  speculation  in  the  eyes  she  cast  on  a  foreign  people, 
and  a  voluble  muteness  shadowing  at  intervals  along  the  line 
of  her  closed  lips. 

The  one  person  among  them  a  little  out  of  tune  with  most, 
was  Lady  Grace  Halley.  Nataly's  provincial  gentlewoman's 
traditions  of  the  manners  indicating  conduct,  reproved 
unwonted  licences  assumed  by  Lady  Grace ;  who,  in  allusion 
to  Hymen's  weaving  of  a  cousinship  between  the  earldom  of 
Southweare  and  that  of  Cantor,  of  which  Mr.  Sowerby 
sprang,  set  her  mouth  aud  fan  at  work  to  delineate  total 
distinctions,  as  it  were  from  the  egg  to  the  empyrean.  Her 
stature  was  rather  short,  all  of  it  conversational,  at  the  eye- 
brows, the  shoulders,  the  finger-tips,  the  twisting  shape ;  a 
ballerina's  expressiveness ;  and  her  tongue  dashed  half 
sentences  through  and  among  these  hieroglyphs,  loosely  and 
funnily  can4i4.    An^bod^  might  hear  that  she  had  gone 


SOME  FAMILIAR  GUESTS  65 

gamblkig  into  the  City,  and  that  she  had  got  herself  into  a 
mess,  £jid  that  by  great  good  luck  she  had  come  across 
Victor  Eadnor,  who,  with  two  turns  of  the  wrist,  had  plucked 
her  out  of  the  mire,  the  miraculous  man!  And  she  had 
vowed  to  him,  never  again  to  run  doing  the  like  without  his 
approval. 

The  catge  of  her  having  done  it,  was  related  with  the 
accompanii^ents ;  brows  twitching,  flitting  smiles,  shrugs, 
pouts,  shift?  of  posture :  she  was  married  to  a  centaur ;  out 
of  the  saddle  a  man  of  wood,  "an  excellent  man.''  For  the 
not  colloqui^  do  not  commit  themselves!  But  one  wants 
a  little  anim^ion  in  a  husband.  She  called  on  bell-motion 
of  the  head  ip  toll  forth  the  utter  nightcap  negative.  He 
had  not  any :  0;it  of  the  saddle,  he  was  asleep :  —  "  next  door 
to  the  Last  Triinp,"  Colney  Durance  assisted  her  to  describe 
the  soundest  ol^  sleep  in  a  husband,  after  wooing  her  to 
unbosom  herseln  She  was  awake  to  his  guileful  arts,  and 
sailed  along  witahim,  hailing  his  phrases,  if  he  shot  a  good 
one ;  prankishly  Exposing  a  flexible  nature,  that  took  its 
holiday  thus  in  a  grinding  world,  among  maskers,  to  the 
horrification  of  the  ^rim.  So  to  refresh  ourselves,  by  having 
publicly  a  hip-bath  xl  the  truth  while  we  shock  our  hearers 
enough  to  be  discredited  for  what  we  reveal,  was  a  dexterous 
merry  twist,  amusing  o  her ;  but  it  was  less  a  cynical  malice 
than  her  nature  that  ^e  indulged.  "  A  woman  must  have 
some  excitement."  Thv  most  innocent  appeared  to  her  the 
Stock  Exchange.  The  Vpinions  of  husbands  who  are  not 
summoned  to  pay  are  ha^ly  important ;  they  vary. 

Colney  helped  her  nowind  then  to  step  the  trifle  beyond 
her  stride,  but  if  he  was  htmorous,  she  forgave ;  and  if  to- 
gether they  appalled  the  decorous,  it  was  great  gain.  Her 
supple  person,  pretty  lips,  t\e  style  she  had,  gave  a  pass 
to  the  wondrous  confidings,  "v^ich  were  for  masculine  ears, 
whatever  the  sex.  Nataly  mi^t  share  in  them,  but  women 
did  not  lead  her  to  expansivenie^ ;  or  not  the  women  of  the 
contracted  class :  Miss  Graves,  Wrs.  Cormyn,  and  others  at 
the  Eadnor  Concerts.  She  had  \  special  consideration  for 
Mademoiselle  de  Seilles,  owing  tdher  exquisite  French,  as 
she  said ;  and  she  may  have  likedV  but  it  was  the  young 
Frenchwoman's  air  of  high  breeding  that  won  her  esteem. 
Girls  were  Spring  frosts  to  her.    Fro\ting  Nesta,  she  put  on 


66  ONE  OF   OUK.  CONQUERORS 

her  printed  smile,  or  wood-cut  of  a  smile,  witli  its  'abel  of 
indulgence ;  except  when  the  girl  sang.  Music  she  loved. 
She  said  it  was  the  saving  of  poor  Dudley.  It  distiiguished 
him  in  the  group  of  the  noble  Evangelical  Cantoj  Family j 
and  it  gave  him  a  subject  of  assured  discourse  in  company ; 
and  oddly,  it  contributed  to  his  comelier  air.  Flute  in  hand, 
his  mouth  at  the  blow-stop  was  relieved  of  its  pained 
updraw  by  the  form  for  puffing;  he  preserved  a  gentlemanly 
high  figure  in  his  exercises  on  the  instrument,  out  of  ken  of 
all  likeness  to  the  urgent  insistency  of  Victor  Radnor's 
punctuating  trunk  of  the  puffing  frame  at  alnost  every  bar 
—  an  Apollo  brilliancy  in  energetic  pursuit  of  the  nymph 
of  sweet  sound.     Too  methodical  one,  too  fiay  the  other. 

In  duets  of  Hauptmann's,  with  JSTesta  a^  the  piano,  the 
contrast  of  dull  smoothness  and  overstreised  significance 
was  very  noticeable  beside  the  fervent  accuracy  of  her 
balanced  fingering ;  and  as  she  could  alFO  flute,  she  could 
criticize ;  though  latterly  the  flute  was  bo-ed  away  from  lips 
that  had  devoted  themselves  wholly  to  scng :  song  being  one 
of  the  damsel's  present  pressing  ambitions.  She  found 
nothing  to  correct  in  Mr.  Sowerby,  anc'her  father  was  open 
to  all  the  censures;  but  her  father  could  plead  vitality, 
passion.  He  held  his  performance-  cheap  after  the  ve- 
hement display ;  he  was  a  happy  1  stener,  whether  to  the 
babble  of  his  "  dear  old  Corelli,"  t  to  the  majesty  of  the 
rattling  heavens  and  swaying  forercs  of  Beethoven. 

His  air  of  listening  was  a  thirg  to  see ;  it  had  a  look  of 
disembodiment ;  the  sparkle  conjired  up  from  deeps,  and  the 
life  in  the  sparkle,  as  of  a  soul^t  holiday.  Eyes  had  been 
given  this  man  to  spy  the  pleisures  and  reveal  the  joy  of 
his  pasture  on  them :  gateways  to  the  sunny  within,  issues 
to  all  the  outer  Edens.  Ffvv  of  us  possess  that  double 
significance  of  the  pure  .parkle.  It  captivated  Lady 
Grace.  She  said  a  word  of  -t  to  Fenellan  :  "  There  is  a  man 
who  can  feel  rapture ! "  te  had  not  to  follow  the  line  of 
her  sight :  she  said  so  or  a  previous  evening,  in  a  similar 
tone ;  and  for  a  woman  co  repeat  herself,  using  the  very 
emphasis,  was  quaint.  She  could  feel  rapture;  but  her 
features  and  limbs  wee  in  motion  to  designate  it,  between 
simply  and  wilfully ;  she  had  the  instinct  to  be  dimpling, 
and  would  not  for  a  uoment  control  it^  and  delighted  in  its 


SOME  FAMIUAB  GUESTS  67 

effectiveness :  only  when  observing  that  winged  sparkle  of 
eyes  did  an  idea  of  envy,  hardly  a  consciousness,  inform 
her  of  being  surpassed ;  and  it  might  be  in  the  capacity  to 
feel  besides  the  gift  to  express.  Such  a  reflection  relating 
to  a  man,  will  make  women  mortally  sensible  that  they  are 
the  feminine  of  him. 

"His  girl  has  the  look,"  Fenellan  said  in  answer. 

She  cast  a  glance  at  Nesta,  then  at  Nataly. 

And  it  was  true,  that  the  figure  of  a  mother,  not  pretend- 
ing to  the  father's  vividness,  eclipsed  it  somewhat  in  their 
child.  The  mother  gave  richness  of  tones,  hues  and  voice, 
and  stature  likewise,  and  the  thick  brown  locks,  which  in 
her  own  were  threads  of  gold  along  the  brush  from  the 
temples  :  she  gave  the  girl  a  certain  degree  of  the  composure 
of  manner  which  Victor  could  not  have  bestowed ;  she  gave 
nothing  to  clash  with  his  genial  temper ;  she  might  be  sup- 
posed to  have  given  various  qualities,  moral  if  you  like. 
But  vividness  was  Lady's  Grace's  admirable  meteor  of  the 
hour:  she  was  unable  to  perceive,  so  as  to  compute,  the 
value  of  obscurer  lights.  Under  the  charm  of  Nataly's 
rich  contralto  during  a  duet  with  Priscilla  Graves,  she  ges- 
ticulated ecstasies,  and  uttered  them,  and  genuinely;  and 
still,  when  reduced  to  meditations,  they  would  have  had  no 
weight,  they  would  hardly  have  seemed  an  apology  for 
language,  beside  Victor's  gaze  of  pleasure  in  the  noble 
forthroll  of  the  notes. 

Nataly  heard  the  invitation  of  the  guests  of  the  evening 
to  Lakelands  next  day. 

Her  anxieties  were  at  once  running  about  to  gather  pro- 
visions for  the  baskets.  She  spoke  of  them  at  night.  But 
Victor  had  already  put  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  Madame 
Callet;  and  all  that  could  be  done,  would  be  done  by 
Armandine,  he  knew.  "If  she  can't  muster  enough  at 
home,  she  '11  be  off  to  her  Piccadilly  shop  by  seven  a.  m. 
Count  on  plenty  for  twice  the  number." 

Nataly  was  reposing  on  the  thought  that  they  were  her 
friends,  when  Victor  mentioned  his  having  in  the  afternoon 
despatched  a  note  to  his  relatives,  the  Duvidney  ladies, 
inviting  them  to  join  him  at  the  station  to-morrow,  for  a 
visit  of  inspection  to  the  house  of  his  building  on  his  new 
estate,     He  startled  her.     The  Duvidney  ladies  were,  to  hig 


68  ONE  OP  OUB  CONQUEKORS 

knowledge,  of  the  order  of  the  fragile  minds  which  hold 
together  by  the  cement  of  a  common  trepidation  for  the 
support  of  things  established,  and  have  it  not  in  them  to  be 
able  to  recognize  the  unsanctioned.  Good  women,  unworldly 
of  the  world,  they  were  perforce  harder  than  the  world,  from 
being  narrower  and  more  timorous. 

"  But,  Victor,  you  were  sure  they  would  refuse  ! " 

He  answered :  "  They  may  have  gone  back  to  Tunbridge 
Wells.  By  the  way,  they  have  a  society  down  there  I  want 
for  Fredi.  Sure,  do  you  say,  my  dear?  Perfectly  sure. 
But  the  accumulation  of  invitations  and  refusals  in  the  end 
softens  them,  you  will  see.  We  shall  and  must  have  them 
for  Fredi." 

She  was  used  to  the  long  reaches  of  his  forecasts,  his 
burning  activity  on  a  project ;  she  found  it  idle  to  speak  her 
thought,  that  his  ingenuity  would  have  been  needless  in  a 
position  dictated  by  plain  prudence,  and  so  much  happier 
for  them. 

They  talked  of  Mrs.  Burman  until  she  had  to  lift  a  prayer 
to  be  saved  from  darker  thoughts,  dreadfully  prolific,  not  to 
be  faced.  Part  of  her  prayer  was  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Burman, 
for  life  to  be  extended  to  her,  if  the  poor  lady  clung  to  life  — 
if  it  was  really  humane  to  wish  it  for  her :  and  heaven  would 
know  :  heaven  had  mercy  on  the  afflicted. 

Nataly  heard  the  snuf^e  of  hypocrisy  in  her  prayer.  She 
had  to  cease  to  pray. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AN   INSPECTION   OF   LAKELANDS 

One  may  not  have  an  intention  to  flourish,  and  may  bo 
pardoned  for  a  semblance  of  it,  in  exclaiming,  somewhat 
royally,  as  creator  and  owner  of  the  place :  "  There  you  see 
Lakelands." 

The  conveyances  from  the  railway  station  drew  up  on 
a  rise  of  road  fronting  an  undulation,  where  our  modern 
Jin^lish   9,rchitecVs  fantasia  in  crimson  brick  swept  from 


AN  INSPECTION  OF  LAKELANDS  69 

central  gables  to  flying  wings,  over  pents,  crooks,  curves, 
peaks,  cowled  porches,  balconies,  recesses,  projections,  away 
to  a  red  village  of  stables  and  dependent  cottages  ;  harmo- 
nious in  irregularity ;  and  coloured  homely  with  the  green- 
sward about  it,  the  pines  beside  it,  the  clouds  above  it.  Not 
many  palaces  would  be  reckoned  as  larger.  The  folds  and 
swells  and  stream  of  the  building  along  the  roll  of  ground, 
had  an  appearance  of  an  enormous  banner  on  the  wind. 
Nataly  looked.  Her  next  look  was  at  Colney  Durance. 
She  sent  the  expected  nods  to  Victor's  carriage.  She  would 
have  given  the  whole  prospect  for  the  covering  solitariness 
of  her  chamber.  A  multitude  of  clashing  sensations,  and 
a  throat-thickening  hateful  to  her,  compelled  her  to  summon 
so  as  to  force  herself  to  feel  a  groundless  anger,  directed 
against  none,  against  nothing,  perfectly  crazy,  but  her  only  re- 
source for  keeping  down  the  great  wave  surgent  at  her  eyes. 
Victor  was  like  a  swimmer  in  morning  sea  amid  the 
exclamations  encircling  him.  He  led  through  the  straight 
passage  of  the  galleried  hall,  offering  two  fair  landscapes 
at  front  door  and  at  back,  down  to  the  lake,  Fredi's  lake  ;  a 
good  oblong  of  water,  notable  in  a  district  not  abounding 
in  the  commodity.  He  would  have  it  a  feature  of  the 
district ;  and  it  had  been  deepened  and  extended ;  up  rose 
the  springs,  many  ran  the  ducts.  Fredi's  pretty  little  bath- 
shed  or  bower  had  a  space  of  marble  on  the  three-feet  shal- 
low it  overhung  with  a  shade  of  carved  woodwork ;  it  had 
a  diving-board  for  an  eight-feet  plunge ;  a  punt  and  small 
row-boat  of  elegant  build  hard  by.  Green  ran  the  banks 
about,  and  a  beechwood  fringed  with  birches  curtained  the 
Northward  length :  morning  sun  and  evening  had  a  fair 
face  of  water  to  paint.  Saw  man  ever  the  like  for  pleasing 
a  poetical  damsel  ?  So  was  Miss  Fredi,  the  coldest  of  the 
party  hitherto,  and  dreaming  a  preference  of  ^'  old  places  " 
like  Creckholt  and  Craye  Farm,  "captured  to  be  enraptured,^' 
quite  according  to  man's  ideal  of  his  beneficence  to  the  sex. 
She  pressed  the  hand  of  her  young  French  governess  Louise 
de  Seilles.  As  in  everything  he  did  for  his  girl,  Victor 
pointed  boastfully  to  his  forethought  of  her  convenience 
and  her  tastes  ;  the  pine-panels  of  the  interior,  the  shelves 
for  her  books,  pegs  to  hang  her  favourite  drawings,  and 
the  couch-bunk  under  a  window  to  conceal  the  summerly 


70  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

recliner  while  throwing  full  light  on  her  book;  and  the 
hearth-square  for  logs,  when  she  wanted  fire  :  because  Eredi 
bathed  in  any  weather :  the  oaken  towel-coffer ;  the  wood- 
carvings  of  doves,  tits,  fishes;  the  rod  for  the  flowered 
silken  hangings  she  was  to  choose,  and  have  shy  odalisque 
peeps  of  sunny  water  from  her  couch. 

"  Eredi's  Nai'ad  retreat,  when  she  wishes  to  escape  Herr 
Strauscher  or  Signor  Ruderi,''  said  Victor,  having  his  grate- 
ful girl  warm  in  an  arm ;  "  and  if  they  head  after  her  into 
the  water,  I  back  her  to  leave  them  puffing ;  she 's  a  dolphin. 
That  water  has  three  springs  and  gets  all  the  drainings  of 
the  upland  round  us.  I  chose  the  place  chiefly  on  account 
of  it  and  the  pines.     I  do  love  pines ! " 

"  But,  excellent  man !  what  do  you  not  love?  "  said  Lady 
Grace,  with  the  timely  hit  upon  the  obvious,  which  rings. 

'*  It  saves  him  from  accumulation  of  tissue,"  said  Colney. 

"  What  does  ? "  was  eagerly  asked  by  the  wife  of  the 
homoeopathic  Dr.  John  Cormyn,  a  sentimental  lady  beset 
with  fears  of  stoutness. 

Victor  cried :  "  Tush ;  don't  listen  to  Colney,  pray." 

But  she  heard  Colney  speak  of  a  positive  remedy,  more 
immediately  effective  than  an  abjuration  of  potatoes  and 
sugar.  She  was  obliged  by  her  malady  to  listen,  although 
detesting  the  irreverent  ruthless  man,  who  could  direct 
expanding  frames,  in  a  serious  tone,  to  love;  love  every- 
body, everything;  violently  and  universally  love;  and  so 
without  intermission  pay  out  the  fat  created  by  a  rapid 
assimilation  of  nutriment.  Obeseness  is  the  most  sensitive 
of  our  ailments  :  probably  as  being  aware,  that  its  legiti- 
mate appeal  to  pathos  is  ever  smothered  in  its  pudding-bed 
of  the  grotesque.  She  was  pained,  and  showed  it,  and  was 
ashamed  of  herself  for  showing  it;  and  that  very  nearly 
fetched  the  tear. 

"  Our  host  is  an  instance  in  proof,''  Colney  said.  He 
waved  hand  at  the  house.  His  meaning  was  hidden ;  evi- 
dently he  wanted  victims.  Sight  of  Lakelands  had  gripped 
him  with  the  fell  satiric  itch;  and  it  is  a  passion  to  sting 
and  tear,  on  rational  grounds.  His  face  meanwhile,  which 
had  points  of  the  handsome,  signified  a  smile  asleep,  as  if 
beneath  a  cloth.  Only  those  who  knew  him  well  were 
aware  of  the  claw-like  alertness  under  the  droop  of  eyelids. 


AN  INSPECTION   OF  LAKELANDS  71 

Admiration  was  the  common  note,  in  the  various  keys. 
The  station  selected  for  the  South-eastward  aspect  of  the 
dark-red  gabled  pile  on  its  white  shell-terrace,  backed  by  a 
plantation  of  tall  pines,  a  mounded  and  full-plumed  com- 
pany, above  the  left  wing,  was  admired,  in  files  and  in  vol- 
leys. Marvellous,  effectively  miraculous,  was  the  tale  of 
the  vow  to  have  the  great  edifice  finished  within  one  year : 
and  the  strike  of  workmen,  and  the  friendly  colloquy  with 
them,  the  good  reasoning,  the  unanimous  return  to  duty ; 
and  the  doubling,  the  trebling  of  the  number  of  them ;  and 
the  most  glorious  of  sights  —  the  grand  old  English  work- 
ing with  a  will !  as  Englishmen  do  when  they  come  at  last 
to  heat ;  and  they  conquer,  there  is  then  nothing  that  they 
cannot  conquer.  So  the  conqueror  said.  —  And  admirable 
were  the  conservatories  running  three  long  lines,  one  from 
the  drawing-room,  to  a  central  dome  for  tropical  growths. 
And  the  parterres  were  admired;  also  the  newly-planted 
Irish  junipers  bounding  the  West-walk ;  and  the  three  tiers 
of  stately  descent  from  the  three  green  terrace  banks  to  the 
grassy  slopes  over  the  lake.  Again  the  lake  was  admired, 
the  house  admired.  Admiration  was  evoked  for  great 
orchid-houses  "  over  yonder,"  soon  to  be  set  up. 

Off  we  go  to  the  kitchen-garden.  There  the  admiration 
is  genial,  practical.  We  admire  the  extent  of  the  beds 
marked  out  for  asparagus,  and  the  Erench  disposition  of 
the  planting  at  wide  intervals;  and  the  Erench  system 
of  training  peach,  pear,  and  plum  trees  on  the  walls  to 
win  length  and  catch  sun,  we  much  admire.  We  admire 
the  gardener.  We  are  induced  temporarily  to  admire  the 
Erench  people.  They  are  sagacious  in  fruit-gardens.  They 
have  not  the  English  Constitution,  you  think  rightly;  but 
in  fruit-gardens  they  grow  for  fruit,  and  not,  as  Victor  quotes 
a  friend,  for  wood,  which  the  valiant  English  achieve.  We 
hear  and  we  see  examples  of  sagacity ;  and  we  are  further 
brought  round  to  the  old  confession,  that  we  cannot  cook ; 
Colney  Durance  has  us  there ;  we  have  not  studied  herbs 
and  savours ;  and  so  we  are  shocked  backward  step  by  step 
until  we  retreat  precipitately  into  the  nooks  where  waxen 
tapers,  carefully  tended  by  writers  on  the  Press,  light-up 
mysterious  images  of  our  national  selves  for  admiration- 
Something  surely  we  do,  or  we  should  not  be  where  we  are. 


72  ONE  OF  OUE  COKQUEROKS 

But  what  is  it  we  do  (excepting  cricket,  of  course)  which 
others  cannot  do  ?  Colney  asks ;  and  he  excludes  cricket 
and  football. 

An  acutely  satiric  man  in  an  English  circle,  that  does  not 
resort  to  the  fist  for  a  reply  to  him,  may  almost  satiate  the 
excessive  fury  roused  in  his  mind  by  an  illogical  people  of 
a  provocative  prosperity,  mainly  tongueless  or  of  leaden 
tongue  above  the  pressure  of  their  necessities,  as  he  takes 
them  to  be.  They  give  him  so  many  opportunities.  They 
are  angry  and  helpless  as  the  log  hissing  to  the  saw.  Their 
instinct  to  make  use  of  the  downright  in  retort,  restrained 
as  it  is  by  a  buttoned  coat  of  civilization,  is  amusing,  in- 
viting. Colney  Durance  allured  them  to  the  quag's  edge  and 
plunged  them  in  it,  to  writhe  patriotically ;  and  although  it 
may  be  said,  that  they  felt  their  situation  less  than  did  he 
the  venom  they  sprang  in  his  blood,  he  was  cruel;  he 
caused  discomfort.  But  these  good  friends  about  him  stood 
for  the  country,  an  illogical  country;  and  as  he  could  not 
well  attack  his  host  Victor  Radnor,  an  irrational  man,  he 
selected  the  abstract  entity  for  the  discharge  of  his  honest 
spite. 

The  irrational  friend  was  deeper  at  the  source  of  his 
irritation  than  the  illogical  old  motherland.  This  house  of 
Lakelands,  the  senselessness  of  his  friend  in  building  it  and 
designing  to  live  in  it,  after  experiences  of  an  incapacity  to 
stand  in  a  serene  contention  with  the  world  he  challenged, 
excited  Colney's  wasp.  He  was  punished,  half  way  to 
frenzy  behind  his  placable  demeanour,  by  having  Dr.  Schle- 
sien  for  chorus.  And  here  again,  it  was  the  unbefitting,  not 
the  person,  which  stirred  his  wrath.  A  German  on  English 
soil  should  remember  the  dues  of  a  gufest.  At  the  same 
time,  Colney  said  things  to  snare  the  acclamation  of  an 
observant  gentleman  of  that  race,  who  is  no  longer  in  his 
first  enthusiasm  for  English  beef  and  the  complexion  of 
the  women.  "  Ah,  ya,  it  is  true,  what  you  say :  *  The  English 
grow  as  fast  as  odders,  but  they  grow  to  horns  instead  of 
brains,*  They  are  Bull.  Quaat  true."  He  bellowed  on  a 
laugh  the  last  half  of  the  quotation. 

Colney  marked  him.  His  encounters  with  Fenellan  were 
enlivening  engagements  and  left  no  malice ;  only  a  regret, 
when  the  fencing  passed  his  guard,  that  Fenellan  should 


AN  mSPECTIOK  OF  LAKELAKDS  73 

prefer  to  flash  for  the  minute.  He  would  have  met  a  pert 
defender  of  England,  in  the  person  of  Miss  Priscilla  Graves, 
if  she  had  not  been  occupied  with  observation  of  the  bearing 
of  Lady  Grace  Halley  toward  Mr.  Victor  Kadnor;  which 
displeased  her  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Victor ;  she  was  besides 
hostile  by  race  and  class  to  an  aristocratic  assumption  of 
licence.  Sparing  Colney,  she  with  some  scorn  condemned 
Mr.  Pempton  for  allowing  his  country  to  be  ridiculed  with- 
out a  word.  Mr.  Pempton  believed  that  the  Vegetarian 
movement  was  more  progressive  in  England  than  in  other 
lands,  but  he  was  at  the  disadvantage  with  the  fair  Priscilla, 
that  eulogy  of  his  compatriots  on  this  account  would  Avin 
her  coldest  approval.  "  Satire  was  never  an  argument,"  he 
said,  too  evasively. 

The  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby  received  the  meed  of  her 
smile,  for  saying  in  his  many-fathom  bass,  with  an  eye  on 
Victor :  "  At  least  we  may  boast  of  breeding  men,  who  are 
leaders  of  men." 

The  announcement  of  luncheon,  by  Victor's  butler  Arling- 
ton, opportunely  followed  and  freighted  the  remark  with  a 
happy  recognition  of  that  which  comes  to  us  from  the  hands 
of  conquerors.  Dr.  Schlesien  himself,  no  antagonist  to 
England,  but  like  Colney  Durance,  a  critic,  speculated  in 
view  of  the  spread  of  pic-nic  provision  beneath  the  great  glass 
dome,  as  to  whether  it  might  be,  that  these  English  were  on 
another  start  out  of  the  dust  in  vigorous  commercial  enter- 
prise, under  leadership  of  one  of  their  chance  masterly  minds 
—  merchant,  in  this  instance:  and  he  debated  within, 
whether  Genius,  occasionally  developed  in  a  surprising 
superior  manner  by  these  haphazard  English,  may  not  some- 
times wrest  the  prize  from  Method ;  albeit  we  count  for  the 
long  run,  that  Method  has  assurance  of  success,  however 
late  in  the  race  to  set  forth. 

Luncheon  was  a  merry  meal,  with  Victor  and  Nataly  for 
host  and  hostess;  Fenellan,  Colney  Durance,  and  Lady 
Grace  Halley  for  the  talkers.  A  gusty  bosom  of  sleet 
overhung  the  dome,  rattled  on  it,  and  rolling  Westward, 
became  a  radiant  mountain-land,  partly  worthy  of  Victor's 
phrase:  "A  range  of  Swiss  Alps  in  air." 

"With  periwigs  Louis  Quatorze  for  peaks,"  Colney 
added. 


74  OKE  OF  OUR  CONQIiEROItS 

And  Fenellan  improved  on  him :  "  Or  a  magnified  Bench 
of  Judges  at  the  trial  of  your  cserulean  Phryne." 

The  strip  of  white  cloud  flew  on  a  whirl  from  the  blue, 
to  confirm  it. 

But  Victor  and  Lady  Grace  rejected  any  play  of  conceits 
upon  nature.  Violent  and  horrid  interventions  of  the 
counterfeit,  such  mad  similes  appeared  to  them,  when  pure 
coin  was  offered.  They  loathed  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby 
for  proclaiming,  that  he  had  seen  "Chapters  of  Hebrew 
History  in  the  grouping  of  clouds." 

His  gaze  was  any  one  of  the  Chapters  upon  Nesta.  The 
clerical  gentleman's  voice  was  of  a  depth  to  claim  for  it 
the  profoundest  which  can  be  thought  or  uttered;  and 
Nesta's  tender  youth  had  taken  so  strong  an  impression  of 
sacredness  from  what  Fenellan  called  "his  chafer  tones," 
that  her  looks  were  often  given  him  in  gratitude,  for  the 
mere  sound.  Nataly  also  had  her  sense  of  safety  in  acqui- 
escing to  such  a  voice  coming  from  such  a  garb.  Conse- 
quently, whenever  Fenellan  and  Colney  were  at  him, 
drawing  him  this  way  and  that  for  utterances  cathedral 
in  sentiment  and  sonorousness,  these  ladies  shed  protecting 
beams;  insomuch  that  he  was  inspired  to  the  agreeable 
conceptions  whereof  frequently  rash  projects  are  an  issue. 

Touching  the  neighbours  of  Lakelands,  they  were  prin- 
cipally enriched  merchants,  it  appeared ;  a  snippet  or  two 
of  the  fringe  of  aristocracy  lay  here  and  there  among  them; 
and  one  racy-of-the-soil  old  son  of  Thanes,  having  the 
manners  proper  to  last  century's  yeoman.  Mr.  Pempton 
knew  something  of  this  quaint  Squire  of  Hefferstone, 
Beaves  Urmsing  by  name;  a  ruddy  man,  right  heartily 
Saxon;  a  still  glowing  brand  amid  the  ashes  of  the  Hep- 
tarchy hearthstone ;  who  had  a  song.  The  Marigolds^  which 
he  would  troll  out  for  you  anywhere,  on  any  occasion.  To 
have  so  near  to  the  metropolis  one  from  the  centre  of  the 
venerable  rotundity  of  the  country,  was  rare.  Victor 
exclaimed  "  Come !  "  in  ravishment  over  the  picturesqueness 
of  a  neighbour  carrying  imagination  away  to  the  founts  of 
England;  and  his  look  at  Nataly  proposed^  Her  counte- 
nance was  inapprehensive.  He  perceived  resistance,  and 
said :  "  I  have  met  two  or  three  of  them  in  the  train :  agree- 
able men:  Gladding,  the  banker;  a  General  Fanning;  that 


AN  INSPECTION  OF  LAKELANDS  75 

man  Blathenoy,  great  bill-broker.  But  the  fact  is,  close 
on  London,  we  're  independent  of  neighbours;  we  mean  to 
be.     Lakelands  and  London  practically  join." 

"The  mother  city  becoming  the  suburb,"  murmured 
Colney,  in  report  of  the  union. 

"You  must  expect  to  be  invaded,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Sow- 
erby;  and  Victor  shrugged:  "We  are  pretty  safe." 

"  The  lock  of  a  door  seems  a  potent  security  until  some 
one  outside  is  heard  fingering  the  handle  nigh  midnight," 
Fenellan  threw  out  his  airy  nothing  of  a  remark. 

It  struck  on  Nataly's  heart.  "  So  you  will  not  let  us  be 
lonely  here,"  she  said  to  her  guests. 

The  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby  was  mouthpiece  for  congre- 
gations. Sound  of  a  subterranean  roar,  with  a  blast  at  the 
orifice,  informed  her  of  their  "  very  deep  happiness  in  the 
privilege." 

He  comforted  her.     Nesta  smiled  on  him  thankfully. 

"Don't  imagine,  Mrs.  Victor,  that  you  can  be  shut  off 
from  neighbours,  in  a  house  like  this;  and  they  have  a 
claim,"  said  Lady  Grace,  quitting  the  table. 

Fenellan  and  Colney  thought  so : 

"Like  mice  at  a  cupboard." 

"Beetles  in  a  kitchen." 

"  No,  no  —  no ,  no  !  "  Victor  shook  head,  pitiful  over  the 
good  people  likened  to  things  unclean,  and  royally  uprais- 
ing them :  in  doing  which,  he  scattered  to  vapour  the  leaden 
incubi  they  had  been  upon  his  flatter  moods  of  late.  "  No, 
but  it 's  a  rapture  to  breathe  the  air  here  !  "  His  lifted 
chest  and  nostrils  were  for  the  encouragement  of  Nataly 
to  soar  beside  him. 

She  summoned  her  smile  and  nodded. 

He  spoke  aside  to  Lady  Grace :  "  The  dear  soul  wants 
time  to  compose  herself  after  a  grand  surprise." 

She  replied:  "I  think  I  could  soon  be  reconciled.  How 
much  land  ?  " 

"  In  treaty  for  some  hundred  and  eighty  or  ninety  acres 
...  in  all  at  present  three  hundred  and  seventy,  includ- 
ing plantations,  lake,  outhouses." 

"  Large  enough ;  land  paying  as  it  does  —  that  is,  not 
paying.  We  shall  be  having  to  gamble  in  the  City  syste- 
matically for  subsistence." 


76  ONE  OP  OUR  COKQ0EEORS 

"You  will  not  so  much  as  jest  on  the  subject." 
Coming  from  such  a  man,  that  was  clear  sky  thunder. 
The  lady  played  it  off  in  a  shadowy  pout  and  shrug  while 
taking  a  stamp  of  his  masterfulness,  not  so  volatile. 

She  said  to  Nataly:  "Our  place  in  Worcestershire  is 
about  half  the  size,  if  as  much.  Large  enough  when 
we  're  not  crowded  out  with  gout  and  can  open  to  no  one. 
Some  day  you  will  visit  us,  I  hope." 

"You  we  count  on  here,  Lady  Grace." 

It  was  an  over-accentuated  response ;  unusual  with  this 
well-bred  woman ;  and  a  bit  of  speech  that  does  not  flow, 
causes  us  to  speculate.  The  lady  resumed :  "  I  value  the 
favour.  We  're  in  a  horsey-doggy- foxy  circle  down  there. 
We  want  enlivening.  If  we  had  your  set  of  musicians 
and  talkers  ! " 

Nataly  smiled  in  vacuous  kindness,  at  a  loss  for  the 
retort  of  a  compliment  to  a  person  she  measured.  Lady 
Grace  also  was  an  amiable  hostile  reviewer.  Each  could 
see,  to  have  cited  in  the  other,  defects  common  to  the 
lower  species  of  the  race,  admitting  a  superior  personal 
quality  or  two;  which  might  be  pleaded  in  extenuation; 
and  if  the  apology  proved  too  effective,  could  be  dispersed 
by  insistance  upon  it,  under  an  implied  appeal  to  benevo- 
lence. When  we  have  not  a  liking  for  the  creature  whom 
we  have  no  plain  cause  to  dislike,  we  are  minutely  just. 

During  the  admiratory  stroll  along  the  ground-floor 
rooms,  Colney  Durance  found  himself  beside  Dr.  Schlesien; 
the  latter  smoking,  striding,  emphasizing,  but  bearable, 
as  the  one  of  the  party  who  was  not  perpetually  at  the 
gape  in  laudation.  Colney  was  heard  to  say:  "No  doubt: 
the  German  is  the  race  the  least  mixed  in  Europe:  it 
might  challenge  aboriginals  for  that.  Oddly,  it  has  in- 
vented the  Cyclopaedia  for  knowledge,  the  sausage  for 
nutrition  !     How  would  you  explain  it  ?  " 

Dr.  Schlesien  replied  with  an  Atlas  shrug  under  fleabite 
to  the  insensately  infantile  interrogation. 

He  in  turn  was  presently  heard. 

**But,  my  good  sir!  you  quote  me  your  English  Latin. 
I  must  beg  of  you  you  write  it  down.  It  is  orally 
incomprehensible  to  Continentals." 

"  We  are  Islanders ! "  Colney  shrugged  in  languishment. 


AN  INSPECTION  OF  LAKELANDS  77 

" Oil ,  you  do  great  things  .  ,  ."  Dr.  Schlesien  rejoined 
in  kindness,  making  his  voice  a  musical  intimation  of  the 
smallness  of  the  things. 

"We  build  great  houses,  to  employ  our  bricks." 

"No,  Colney,  to  live  in,"  said  Victor. 

"Scarcely  long  enough  to  warm  them." 

"What  do  you  .  .  .  fiddle!" 

"  They  are  not  Hohenzollerns !  " 

"  It  is  true ,"  Dr.  Schlesien  called.  "  No,  but  you  learn 
discipline;  you  build.  I  say  wid  you,  not  Hohenzollerns 
you  build !  But  you  shall  look  above :  Eyes  up.  Ire 
necesse  est.  Good,  but  mount;  you  come  to  something. 
Have  ideas." 

"  Good,  but  when  do  we  reach  your  level  ?  " 

"  Sir,  I  do  not  say  more  than  that  we  do  not  want  in- 
struction from  foreigners." 

"  Pupil  to  paedagogue  indeed.  You  have  the  wreath  in 
Music,  in  Jurisprudence,  Chemistry,  Scholarship,  Beer, 
Arms,  Manners." 

Dr.  Schlesien  puffed  a  tempest  of  tobacco  and  strode. 

"He  is  chiselling  for  wit  in  the  Teutonic  block,"  Colney 
said,  falling  back  to  Fenellan. 

Fenellan  observed :  "  You  might  have  credited  him  with 
the  finished  sculpture." 

"They  're  ahead  of  us  in  sticking  at  the  charge  of  wit." 

"They  've  a  widening  of  their  swallow  since  Versailles." 

''Manners?'' 

"  Well,  that 's  a  tight  cravat  for  the  Teutonic  thrapple ! 
But  he  's  off  by  himself  to  loosen  it." 

Victor  came  on  the  couple  testily.  "  What  are  you  two 
concocting!  I  say,  do  keep  the  peace,  please.  An  excel- 
lent good  fellow;  better  up  in  politics  than  any  man  I 
know;  understands  music;  means  well,  you  can  see.  You 
two  hate  a  man  at  all  serious.  And  he  doesn't  bore  with 
his  knowledge.     A  scholar  too." 

"If  he  '11  bring  us  the  atmosphere  of  the  groves  of 
Academe,  he  may  swing  his  ferule  pickled  in  himself, 
and  welcome,"  said  Fenellan. 

"  Yes !  "  Victor  nodded  at  a  recognized  antagonism  in 
Fenellan;  "but  Colney 's  always  lifting  the  Germans  high 
above  us." 


78  ONB  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

"It 's  to  exercise  his  muscles." 

Victor  headed  to  the  other  apartments,  thinking  that  the 
Kev.  Septimus  and  young  Sowerby,  Old  England  herself, 
were  spared  by  the  diversion  of  these  light  skirmishing 
shots  from  their  accustomed  victims  to  the  masculine 
people  of  our  time.  His  friends  would  want  a  drilling  to 
be  of  aid  to  him  in  his  campaign  to  come.  Por  it  was  one, 
and  a  great  one.  He  remembered  his  complete  perception 
of  the  plan,  all  the  elements  of  it,  the  forward  whirling  of 
it,  just  before  the  fall  on  London  Bridge.  The  greatness 
of  his  enterprise  laid  such  hold  of  him  that  the  smallest 
of  obstacles  had  a  villanous  aspect;  and  when,  as  antici- 
pated, Colney  and  Fenellan  were  sultry  flies  for  whomso- 
ever they  could  fret,  he  was  blind  to  the  reading  of  absur- 
dities which  caused  Fredi's  eyes  to  stream  and  Lady  Grace 
beside  him  to  stand  awhile  and  laugh  out  her  fit.  Young 
Sowerby  appeared  forgiving  enough  —  he  was  a  perfect 
gentleman:  but  Fredi's  appalling  sense  of  fun  must  try 
him  hard.  And  those  young  fellows  are  often  more 
wounded  by  a  girl's  thoughtless  laughter  than  by  a  man's 
contempt.  Nataly  should  have  protected  him.  Her  face 
had  the  air  of  a  smiling  general  satisfaction;  sign  of  a 
pleasure  below  the  mark  required;  sign  too  of  a  sleepy 
partner  for  a  battle.  Even  in  the  wonderful  kitchen, 
arched  and  pillared  (where  the  explanation  came  to  ISTesta. 
of  Madame  Callet's  frequent  leave  of  absence  of  late,  when 
an  inferior  dinner  troubled  her  father  in  no  degree),  even 
there  his  IS'ataly  listened  to  the  transports  of  the  guests 
with  benign  indulgence. 

"Mama!  "  said  Nesta,  ready  to  be  entranced  by  kitchens 
in  her  bubbling  animation:  she  meant  the  recalling  of 
instances  of  the  conspirator  her  father  had  been. 

"You  none  of  you  guessed  Armandine's  business!  "  Vic- 
tor cried,  in  a  glee  that  pushed  to  make  the  utmost  of  this 
matter  and  count  against  chagrin.  "She  was  off  to  Paris; 
went  to  test  the  last  inventions :  —  Fi'ench  brains  are 
always  alert:  —  and  in  fact,  those  kitchen-ranges,  gas  and 
coal,  and  the  apparatus  for  warming  plates  and  dishes, 
the  whole  of  the  battery  is  on  the  model  of  the  Due 
d'Ariane's  —  finest  in  Europe.  Well,"  he  agreed  with 
Colney,  "to  say  France  is  enough." 


AN  INSPECTION  OF  LAKELANDS  79 

Mr.  Pempton  spoke  to  Miss  Graves  of  the  task  for  a 
woman  to  conduct  a  command  so  extensive.  And,  as  when 
an  inoffensive  wayfarer  has  chanced  to  set  foot  near  a 
wasp's  nest,  out  on  him  came  woman  and  her  champions, 
the  worthy  and  the  sham,  like  a  blast  of  powder. 

Victor  ejaculated:  "Armandine!"  Whoever  doubted 
her  capacity,  knew  not  Armandine ;  or  not  knowing  Arman- 
dine,  knew  not  the  capacity  in  women. 

With  that  utterance  of  her  name,  he  saw  the  orangey 
spot  on  London  Bridge,  and  the  sinking  Tower  and  masts 
and  funnels,  and  the  rising  of  them,  on  his  return  to  his 
legs ;  he  recollected,  that  at  the  very  edge  of  the  fall  he 
had  Armandine  strongly  in  his  mind.  She  was  to  do  her 
part :  Fenellan  and  Colney  on  the  surface,  she  below :  and 
hospitality  was  to  do  its  part,  and  music  was  impressed 
—  the  innocent  Concerts ;  his  wealth,  all  his  inventiveness 
were  to  serve ;  —  and  merely  to  attract  and  win  the  tastes 
of  people ,  for  a  social  support  to  Lakelands !  Merely 
that?  Much  more:  —  if  Nataly's  coldness  to  the  place 
would  but  allow  him  to  form  an  estimate  of  how  much. 
At  the  same  time,  being  in  the  grasp  of  his  present  disap- 
pointment, he  perceived  a  meanness  in  the  result,  that  was 
astonishing  and  afflicting.  He  had  not  ever  previously 
felt  imagination  starving  at  the  vision  of  success.  Victor 
had  yet  to  learn,  that  the  man  with  a  material  object  in 
aim,  is  the  man  of  his  object;  and  the  nearer  to  his  mark, 
often  the  farther  is  he  from  a  sober  self;  he  is  more  the 
arrow  of  his  bow  than  bow  to  his  arrow.  This  we  pay  for 
scheming :  and  success  is  costly ;  we  find  we  have  pledged 
the  better  half  of  ourselves  to  clutch  it;  not  to  be  redeemed 
with  the  whole  handful  of  our  prize !  He  was,  however, 
learning  after  his  leaping  fashion.  Nataly's  defective 
sympathy  made  him  look  at  things  through  the  feelings  she 
depressed.  A  shadow  of  his  missed  Idea  on  London  Bridge 
seemed  to  cross  him  from  the  close  flapping  of  a  wing 
within  reach.  He  could  say  only,  that  it  would,  if  caught, 
have  been  an  answer  to  the  thought  disturbing  him. 

Nataly  drew  Colney  Durance  with  her  eyes  to  step  beside 
her,  on  the  descent  to  the  terrace.  Little  Skepsey  hove 
in  sight,  coming  swift  as  the  point  of  an  outrigger  over 
the  flood. 


80  ONE  OF  OUE  CONQUEROKS 

CHAPTER    X 
SKEPSEY   IN   MOTION 

The  bearer  of  his  master^ s  midday  letters  from  London 
sliot  beyond  Nataly  as  soon  as  seen,  with  an  apparent  snap 
of  his  body  in  passing.  He  steamed  to  the  end  of  the 
terrace  and  delivered  the  packet,  returning  at  the  same 
rate  of  speed,  to  do  proper  homage  to  the  lady  he  so  much 
respected.  He  had  left  the  railway-station  on  foot  instead 
of  taking  a  fly,  because  of  a  calculation  that  he  would  save 
three  minutes;  which  he  had  not  lost  for  having  to  come 
through  the  raincloud.  "Perhaps  the  contrary,"  Skepsey 
said:  it  might  be  judged  to  have  accelerated  his  course: 
and  his  hat  dripped,  and  his  coat  shone,  and  he  soaped  his 
hands,  cheerful  as  an  ouzel-cock  when  the  sun  is  out  again. 

"  Many  cracked  crowns  lately,  in  the  Manly  Art  ? " 
Colney  inquired  of  him.  And  Skepsey  answered  with  pre- 
cision of  statement:  "Crowns,  no,  sir;  the  nose,  it  may 
happen;  but  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  the  rule." 

"You  are  of  opinion,  that  the  practice  of  Scientific 
Pugilism  offers  us  compensation  for  the  broken  bridge  of 
a  nose  ?  " 

"In  an  increase  of  manly  self-esteem:  I  do,  sir,  yes." 

Skepsey  was  shy  of  this  gentleman's  bite ;  and  he  fancied 
his  defence  had  been  correct.  Perceiving  a  crumple  of  the 
lips  of  Mr.  Durance,  he  took  the  attitude  of  a  watchful 
dubiety. 

"  But,  my  goodness,  you  are  wet  through !  "  cried  Kataly, 
reproaching  herself  for  the  tardy  compassion;  and  Nesta 
ran  up  to  them  and  heaped  a  thousand  pities  on  her  "  poor 
dear  Skip,"  and  drove  him  in  beneath  the  glass-dome  to 
the  fragments  of  pic-nic,  and  poured  champagne  for  him, 
"lest  his  wife  should  have  to  doctor  him  for  a  cold,"  and 
poured  afresh,  when  he  had  obeyed  her,  "for  the  toasting 
of  Lakelands,  dear  Skepsey!"  impossible  to  resist:  so  he 
drank,  and  blinked;  and  was  then  told,  that  before  using 
his  knife  and  fork  he  must  betake  himself  to  some  fire  of 
shavings  and  chips,  where  coffee  was  being  made,  for  the 


SKEPSEY  IN  MOTION  81 

purpose  of  drying  his  clotlies.  But  this  he  would  not  hear 
of:  he  was  pledged  to  business,  to  convey  his  master's 
letters,  and  he  might  have  to  catch  a  train  by  the  last 
quarter-minute,  unless  it  was  behind  the  time-tables;  he 
must  hold  himself  ready  to  start.  Entreated,  adjured, 
commanded,  Skepsey  commiseratingly  observed  to  Colney 
Durance,  "  The  ladies  do  not  understand,  sir !  "  For  Turk 
of  Constantinople  had  never  a  more  haremed  opinion  of  the 
unfitness  of  women  in  the  brave  world  of  action.  The 
persistence  of  these  ladies  endeavouring  to  obstruct  him 
in  the  course  of  his  duty,  must  have  succeeded  save  that 
for  one  word  of  theirs  he  had  two,  and  twice  the  prompti- 
tude of  motion.  He  explained  to  them,  as  to  good  chil- 
dren, that  the  loss  of  five  minutes  might  be  the  loss  of  a 
Post,  the  loss  of  thousands  of  pounds,  the  loss  of  the 
character  of  a  Firm;  and  he  was  away  to  the  terrace. 
Nesta  headed  him  and  waved  him  back.  She  and  her 
mother  rebuked  him:  they  called  him  unreasonable; 
wherein  they  resembled  the  chief  example  of  the  sex  to 
him,  in  a  wife  he  had  at  home,  who  levelled  that  charge 
against  her  husband  when  most  she  needed  discipline :  — 
the  woman  laid  hand  on  the  very  word  legitimately  his 
own  for  the  justification  of  his  process  with  her. 

"But,  Skips!  if  you  are  ill  and  we  have  to  nurse  you  !  " 
said  Nesta. 

She  forgot  the  hospital,  he  told  her  cordially,  and 
laughed  at  the  notion  of  a  ducking  producing  a  cold  or  a 
cold  a  fever,  or  anything  consumption,  with  him.  So  the 
ladies  had  to  keep  down  their  anxious  minds  and  allow  him 
to  stand  in  wet  clothing  to  eat  his  cold  pie  and  salad. 

Miss  Priscilla  Graves  entering  to  them,  became  a  wit- 
ness that  they  were  seductresses  for  inducing  him  to  drink 
wine  —  and  a  sparkling  wine. 

"It  is  to  warm  him,"  they  pleaded,  and  she  said:  "He 
must  be  warm  from  his  walk ; "  and  they  said :  "  But  he  is 
wet ; "  and  said  she,  without  a  show  of  feeling :  "  Warm 
water,  then ;  "  and  Skepsey  writhed,  as  if  in  the  grasp  of 
anatomists,  at  being  the  subject  of  female  contention  or 
humane  consideration.  Miss  Graves  caught  signs  of  the 
possible  proselyte  in  him;  she  remarked  encouragingly:  "I 
am  sure  he  does  not  like  it;  he  still  has  a  natural  taste." 

6 


82  ONE  OF  OUR  COKQUEROES 

She  distressed  his  native  politeness,  for  the  glass  was  in 
his  hand,  and  he  was  fully  aware  of  her  high-principled 
aversion;  and  he  profoundly  bowed  to  principles,  believ- 
ing his  England  to  be  pillared  on  them;  and  the  lady 
looked  like  one  who  bore  the  standard  of  a  principle ;  and 
if  we  slap  and  pinch  and  starve  our  appetites,  the  idea  of 
a  principle  seems  entering  us  to  support.  Subscribing  to 
a  principle,  our  energies  are  refreshed ;  we  have  a  faith  in 
the  country  that  was  not  with  us  before  the  act;  and  of  a 
real  well-founded  faith  come  the  glowing  thoughts  which 
we  have  at  times:  thoughts  of  England  heading  the 
nations;  when  the  smell  of  an  English  lane  under  showers 
challenges  Eden,  and  the  threading  of  a  London  crowd 
tunes  discords  to  the  swell  of  a  cathedral  organ.  It  may 
be,  that  by  the  renunciation  of  any  description  of  alcohol, 
a  man  will  stand  clearer-headed  to  serve  his  country.  He 
may  expect  to  have  a  clearer  memory,  for  certain:  he  will 
not  be  asking  himself,  unable  to  decide,  whether  his  mas- 
ter named  a  Mr.  Journeyman  or  a  Mr.  Jarniman,  as  the 
person  he  declined  to  receive.  Either  of  the  two  is  re- 
pulsed upon  his  application,  owing  to  the  guilty  similarity 
of  sounds:  but  what  we  are  to  think  of  is,  our  own  sad 
state  of  inefficiency  in  failing  to  remember;  which  accuses 
our  physical  condition,  therefore  our  habits.  —  Thus  the 
little  man  debated,  scarcely  requiring  more  than  to  hear 
the  right  word,  to  be  a  convert  and  make  him  a  garland  of 
the  proselyte's  fetters. 

Destructively  for  the  cause  she  advocated.  Miss  Priscilla 
gestured  tlie  putting  forth  of  an  abjuring  hand,  with  the 
recommendation  to  him,  so  to  put  aside  temptation  that 
instant;  and  she  signified  in  a  very  ugly  jerk  of  her  fea- 
tures, the  vilely  filthy  stuff  Morality  thought  it,  however 
pleasing  it  might  be  to  a  palate  corrupted  by  indulgence  of 
the  sensual  appetites. 

But  the  glass  had  been  handed  to  him  by  the  lady  he 
respected,  who  looked  angelical  in  offering  it,  divinely 
other  than  ugly;  and  to  her  he  could  not  be  discourteous; 
not  even  to  pay  his  homage  to  the  representative  of  a 
principle.  He  bowed  to  Miss  Graves,  and  drank,  and 
rushed  forth;  hearing  shouts  behind  him. 

His  master  had  a  packet  of  papers  ready,  easy  for  the 
pocket. 


SKEPSEY  IN  MOTION  83 

"By  the  way,  Skepsey,"  he  said,  "if  a  man  named  Jar- 
niman  should  call  at  the  office,  I  will  see  him." 

Skepsey's  grey  eyes  came  out. 

—  Or  was  it  Journeyman^  that  his  master  would  not  see; 
and  Jarniman  that  he  would  ? 

His  habit  of  obedience,  pride  of  apprehension,  and  the 
time  to  catch  the  train,  forbade  inquiry.  Besides  he  knew 
of  himself  of  old,  that  his  puzzles  were  best  unriddled 
running. 

The  quick  of  pace  are  soon  in  the  quick  of  thoughts. 

Jarniman,  then,  was  a  man  whom  his  master,  not  want- 
ing to  see,  one  day,  and  wanting  to  see,  on  another  day, 
might  wish  to  conciliate :  a  case  of  policy.  Let  Jarniman 
go.  Journeyman,  on  the  other  hand,  was  nobody  at  all, 
a  ghost  of  the  fancy.  Yet  this  Journeyman  was  as  impor- 
tant an  individual,  he  was  a  dread  reality ;  more  important 
to  Skepsey  in  the  light  of  patriot :  and  only  in  that  light 
was  he  permitted  of  a  scrupulous  conscience  and  modest 
mind  to  think  upon  himself  when  the  immediate  subject 
was  his  master's  interests.  For  this  Journeyman  had 
not  an  excuse  for  existence  in  Mr.  Radnor's  pronuncia- 
tion: he  was  born  of  the  buzz  of  a  troubled  ear,  coming  of 
a  disordered  brain,  consequent  necessarily  upon  a  dis- 
orderly stomach,  that  might  protest  a  degree  of  com- 
parative innocence,  but  would  be  shamed  utterly  under 
inspection  of  the  eye  of  a  lady  of  principle. 

What,  then,  was  the  value  to  his  country  of  a  servant 
who  could  not  accurately  recollect  his  master's  words  ! 
Miss  Graves  within  him  asked  the  rapid  little  man,  whether 
indeed  his  ideas  were  his  own  after  draughts  of  champagne. 

The  ideas,  excited  to  an  urgent  animation  by  his  racing 
trot,  were  a  quiverful  in  flight  over  an  England  terrible  to 
the  foe  and  dancing  on  the  green.  Right  so:  but  would 
we  keep-up  the  dance,  we  must  be  red  iron  to  touch :  and 
the  fighter  for  conquering  is  the  one  who  can  last  and  has 
the  open  brain;  —  and  there  you  have  a  point  against 
alcohol.  Yes,  and  Miss  Graves,  if  she  would  press  it,  with 
her  natural  face,  could  be  pleasant  and  persuasive :  and  she 
ought  to  be  told  she  ought  to  marry,  for  the  good  of  the 
country.  Women  taking  liquor :  —  Skepsey  had  a  vision 
'pJLhis_wife_with  rheumy  peepers  and  miauly  mouth,  as  he 


84  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

had  once  beheld  the  creature :  —  Oh !  they  need  discipline : 
not  such  would  we  have  for  the  mothers  of  our  English 
young.  Decidedly  the  women  of  principle  are  bound  to 
enter  wedlock;  they  should  be  bound  by  law.  Whereas, 
in  the  opposing  case  —  the  binding  of  the  unprincipled 
to  a  celibate  state  —  such  a  law  would  have  saved  Skepsey 
from  the  necessitated  commission  of  deeds  of  discipline 
with  one  of  the  female  sex,  and  have  rescued  his  progeny 
from  a  likeness  to  the  corn-stalk  reverting  to  weed.  He 
had  but  a  son  for  England's  defence ;  and  the  frame  of  his 
boy  might  be  set  quaking  by  a  thump  on  the  wind  of  a 
drum;  the  courage  of  William  Barlow  Skepsey  would  not 
stand  against  a  sheep ;  it  would  wind-up  hares  to  have  a 
run  at  him  out  in  the  field.  Offspring  of  a  woman  of 
principle !  .  .  .  but  there  is  no  rubbing  out  in  lif e :  why 
dream  of  it  ?  Only  that  one  would  not  have  one's  country 
the  loser ! 

Dwell  a  moment  on  the  reverse :  —  and  first  remember  the 
lesson  of  the.  Captivity  of  the  Jews  and  the  outcry  of  their 
backsliding  and  repentance :  —  see  a  nation  of  the  honour- 
ably begotten;  muscular  men  disdaining  the  luxuries  they 
will  occasionally  condescend  to  taste,  like  some  tribe  in 
Greece;  boxers,  rowers,  runners,  climbers;  braced,  indom- 
itable; magnanimous,  as  only  the  strong  can  be;  an  army 
at  word,  winning  at  a  stroke  the  double  battle  of  the  hand 
and  the  heart:  men  who  can  walk  the  paths  through  the 
garden  of  the  pleasures.  They  receive  fitting  mates,  of  a 
build  to  promise  or  aid  in  ensuring  depth  of  chest  and  long 
reach  of  arm  for  their  progeny. 

Down  goes  the  world  before  them. 

And  we  see  how  much  would  be  due  for  this  to  a  corps 
of  ladies  like  Miss  Graves,  not  allowed  to  remain  too  long 
on  the  stalk  of  spinsterhood.  Her  age  might  count  twenty- 
eight:  too  long!  She  should  be  taught  that  men  can, 
though  truly  ordinary  women  cannot,  walk  these  orderly 
paths  through  the  garden.  An  admission  to  women,  hint- 
ing restrictions,  on  a  ticket  marked  "m  moderation  ^^ 
(meaning,  that  they  may  pluck  a  flower  or  fruit  along  the 
pathway  border  to  which  they  are  confined),  speedily,  alas, 
exhibits  them  at  a  mad  scramble  across  the  pleasure-beds. 
They  know  not  moderation.     Neither  for  their  own  sakes 


SKEPSEY  IN  MOTION  85 

nor  for  the  sakes  of  Posterity  will  they  hold  from  excess, 
when  they  are  not  pledged  to  shun  it.  The  reason  is,  that 
their  minds  cannot  conceive  the  abstract,  as  men  do. 

But  there  are  grounds  for  supposing  that  the  example 
before  them  of  a  sex  exercising  self-control  in  freedom, 
would  induce  women  to  pledge  themselves  to  a  similar 
abnegation,  until  they  gain  some  sense  of  touch  upon  the 
impalpable  duty  to  the  generations  coming  after  us :  — 
thanks  to  the  voluntary  example  we  set  them. 

The  stupendous  task,  which  had  hitherto  baffled  Skepsey 
in  the  course  of  conversational  remonstrances  with  his  wife ; 
—  that  of  getting  the  Idea  of  Posterity  into  the  understand- 
ing of  its  principal  agent,  might  then  be  mastered. 

Therefore  clearly  men  have  to  begin  the  salutary  move- 
ment: it  manifestly  devolves  upon  them.  Let  them  at 
once  take  to  rigorous  physical  training.  Women  under 
compulsion,  as  vessels:  men  in  their  magnanimity,  patri- 
otically, voluntarily. 

Miss  Graves  must  have  had  an  intimation  for  him;  he 
guessed  it;  and  it  plunged  him  into  a  conflict  with  her, 
that  did  not  suffer  him  to  escape  without  ruefully  feeling 
the  feebleness  of  his  vocabulary:  and  consequently  he 
made  a  reluctant  appeal  to  figures,  and  it  hung  upon  the 
bolder  exhibition  of  lists  and  tables  as  to  whether  he 
was  beaten;  and  if  beaten,  he  was  morally  her  captive; 
and  this  being  the  case,  nothing  could  be  more  repulsive  to 
Skepsey ;  seeing  that  he,  unable  of  his  nature  passively  or 
partially  to  undertake  a  line  of  conduct,  beheld  himself 
wearing  a  detestable  "ribbon,"  for  sign  of  an  oath  quite 
needlessly  sworn  (simply  to  satisfy  the  lady  overcoming 
him  with  nimbler  tongue),  and  blocking  the  streets, 
marching  in  bands  beneath  banners,  howling  hymns. 

Statistics,  upon  which  his  master  and  friends,  after  ex- 
changing opinions  in  argument,  always  fell  back,  frightened 
him.  As  long  as  they  had  no  opponents  of  their  own  kind, 
they  swept  the  field,  they  were  intelligible,  as  the  word 
"principle  "  had  become.  But  the  appearance  of  one  body 
of  Statistics  invariably  brought  up  another;  and  the 
strokes  and  counterstrokes  were  like  a  play  of  quarter-staff 
on  the  sconce,  to  knock  all  comprehension  out  of  Skepsey. 
Otherwise  he  would  not  unwillingly   have   inquired  to- 


X 


86  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

morrow  into  the  Statistics  of  the  controversy  between  the 
waters  of  the  wells  and  of  the  casks,  prepared  to  walk  over 
to  the  victorious,  however  objectionable  that  proceeding. 
He  hoped  to  question  his  master  some  day:  except  that 
his  master  would  very  naturally  have  a  tendency  to  sum-up 
in  favour  of  wine  —  good  wine,  in  moderation ;  just  as  Miss 
Graves  for  the  cup  of  tea  —  not  so  thoughtfully  stipulating 
that  it  should  be  good  and  not  too  copious.  Statistics  are 
according  to  their  conjurors;  they  are  not  independent 
bodies,  with  native  colours;  they  needs  must  be  painted 
by  the  different  hands  they  pass  through,  and  they  may  be 
multiplied;  a  nought  or  so  counts  for  nothing  with  the 
teller.  Skepsey  saw  that.  Yet  they  can  overcome :  even 
as  fictitious  battalions,  they  can  overcome.  He  shrank 
from  the  results  of  a  ciphering  match  having  him  for 
object,  and  was  ashamed  of  feeling  to  Statistics  as  women 
to  giants;  nevertheless  he  acknowledged  that  the  badge 
was  upon  him ,  if  Miss  Graves  should  beat  her  master  in 
her  array  of  figures,  to  insist  on  his  wearing  it,  as  she 
would,  she  certainly  would.  And  against  his  internal 
conviction  perhaps;  with  the  knowledge  that  the  figures 
were  an  unfortified  display,  and  his  oath  of  bondage  an 
unmanly  servility,  the  silliest  of  ceremonies.  He  was 
shockingly  feminine  to  Statistics. 

Mr.  Durance  despised  them:  he  called  them,  arguing 
against  Mr.  Radnor,  "those  emotional  things,"  not  compre- 
hensibly to  Skepsey.  But  Mr.  Durance,  a  very  clever  gen- 
tleman, could  not  be  right  in  everything.  He  made  strange 
remarks  upon  his  country.  Dr.  Yatt  attributed  them  to 
the  state  of  his  digestion. 

And  Mr.  Eenellan  had  said  of  Mr.  Durance  that,  as  "a 
barrister  wanting  briefs,  the  speech  in  him  had  been 
bottled  too  long  and  was  an  overripe  wine  dripping  sour 
drops  through  the  rotten  cork."  Mr.  Fenellan  said  it 
laughing,  he  meant  no  harm.  Skepsey  was  sure  he  had 
the  words.  He  heard  no  more  than  other  people  hear;  he 
remembered  whole  sentences,  and  many:  on  one  of  his 
runs,  this  active  little  machine,  quickened  by  motion  to 
fire,  revived  the  audible  of  years  back;  whatever  suited 
his  turn  of  mind  at  the  moment  rushed  to  the  rapid  wheels 
within  him.     His  master's  business  and  friends,  his  coun- 


SKEPSEY  IN  MOTION  87 

try's  welfare  and  advancement,  these,  witli  records,  items, 
anticipations,  of  the  manlier  sports  to  decorate,  were  his 
current  themes ;  all  being  chopped  and  tossed  and  mixed 
in  salad  accordance  by  his  fervour  of  velocity.  And  if  you 
would  like  a  further  definition  of  Genius,  think  of  it  as  a 
form  of  swiftness.  It  is  the  lively  young  great-grandson, 
in  the  brain,  of  the  travelling  force  which  mathematicians 
put  to  paper,  in  a  row  of  astounding  ciphers,  for  the 
motion  of  earth  through  space ;  to  the  generating  of  heat, 
whereof  is  multiplication,  whereof  deposited  matter,  and 
so  your  chaos ,  your  half-lighted  labyrinth,  your  ceaseless 
pressure  to  evolvement;  and  then  Light,  and  so  Creation, 
order,  the  work  of  Genius.     What  do  you  say  ? 

Without  having  a  great  brain,  the  measure  of  it  pos- 
sessed by  Skepsey  was  alive  under  strong  illumination. 
In  his  heart,  while  doing  penance  for  his  presumptuous- 
ness,  he  believed  that  he  could  lead  regiments  of  men. 
He  was  not  the  army's  General,  he  was  the  General's 
Lieutenant,  now  and  then  venturing  to  suggest  a  piece  of 
counsel  to  his  Chief.  On  his  own  particular  drilled  regi- 
ments, his  Chief  may  rely;  and  on  his  knowledge  of  the 
country  of  the  campaign,  roads,  morasses,  masking  hills, 
dividing  rivers.  He  had  mapped  for  himself  mentally  the 
battles  of  conquerors  in  his  favourite  historic  reading; 
and  he  understood  the  value  of  a  plan,  and  the  danger  of 
sticking  to  it,  and  the  advantage  of  a  big  army  for  flank- 
ing; and  he  manoeuvred  a  small  one  cunningly  to  make  it 
a  bolt  at  the  telling  instant.  Dartrey  Fenellan  had  ex- 
plained to  him  Frederick's  oblique  attack,  Napoleon's 
employment  of  the  artillery  arm  preparatory  to  the  hurling 
of  the  cataract  on  the  spot  of  weakness,  Wellington's 
parallel  march  with  Marmont  up  to  the  hour  of  the  deci- 
sive cut  through  the  latter  at  Salamanca;  and  Skepsey 
treated  his  enemy  to  the  like,  deferentially  reporting  the 
engagement  to  a  Chief  whom  his  modesty  kept  in  eminence, 
for  the  receiving  of  the  principal  honours.  As  to  his  men, 
of  all  classes  and  sorts,  they  are  so  supple  with  training 
that  the}^  sustain  a  defeat  like  the  sturdy  pugilist  a  knock 
off  his  legs,  and  up  smiling  a  minute  after — one  of  the 
truly  beautiful  sights  on  this  earth!  They  go  at  the 
double  half  a  day,  never  sounding  a  single  pair  of  bellows 


88  ONE  O^  OtJE  COKQtTEBOES 

among  them.  They  have  their  appetites  in  full  control, 
to  eat  when  they  can,  or  cheerfully  fast.  They  have 
healthy  frames,  you  see;  and  as  the  healthy  frame  is  not 
artificially  heated,  it  ensues  that,  under  any  title  you  like, 
they  profess  the  principles  —  into  the  bog  we  go,  we  have 
got  round  to  it !  —  the  principles  of  those  horrible  marching 
and  chanting  people ! 

Then,  must  our  England,  to  be  redoubtable  to  the  enemy, 
be  a  detestable  country  for  habitation  ? 

Here  was  a  knot. 

Skepsey's  head  dropped  lower,  he  went  as  a  ram.  The 
sayings  of  Mr.  Durance  about  his  dear  England:  —  that 
"her  remainder  of  life  is  in  the  activity  of  her  diseases": 
—  that  "  she  has  so  fed  upon  Pap  of  Compromise  as  to  be 
unable  any  longer  to  conceive  a  muscular  resolution  " :  — 
that  "  she  is  animated  only  as  the  carcase  to  the  blow-fly  " ; 
and  so  forth :  —  charged  on  him  during  his  wrestle  with  his 
problem.  And  the  gentleman  had  said,  had  permitted 
himself  to  say,  that  our  England's  recent  history  was  a 
provincial  apothecary's  exhibition  of  the  battle  of  bane  and 
antidote.  Mr.  Durance  could  hardly  mean  it.  But  how 
could  one  answer  him  when  he  spoke  of  the  torpor  of  the 
people,  and  of  the  succeeding  Governments  as  a  change  of 
lacqueys  —  or  the  purse-string's  lacqueys  ?  He  said,  that 
Old  England  has  taken  to  the  arm-chair  for  good,  and 
thinks  it  her  whole  business  to  pronounce  opinions  and 
listen  to  herself;  and  that,  in  the  face  of  an  armed  Europe, 
this  great  nation  is  living  on  sufferance.     Oh! 

Skepsey  had  uttered  the  repudiating  exclamation. 

"  Feel  quite  up  to  it  ?  "  he  was  asked  by  his  neighbour. 

The  mover  of  armed  hosts  for  the  defence  of  the  country 
sat  in  a  third-class  carriage  of  the  train,  approaching  the 
first  of  the  stations  on  the  way  to  town.  He  was  instantly 
up  to  the  level  of  an  external  world,  and  fell  into  give 
and  take  with  a  burly  broad  communicative  man ;  located  in 
London,  but  born  in  the  North,  in  view  of  Durham  cathe- 
dral, as  he  thanked  his  Lord;  who  was  of  the  order  of 
pork-butcher;  which  succulent  calling  had  carried  him 
down  to  near  upon  the  borders  of  Surrey  and  Sussex,  some 
miles  beyond  the  new  big  house  of  a  Mister  whose  name  he 
had  forgotten,  though  he  had  heard  it  mentioned  by  an 


SKEPSEY  m  MOTION  89 

acquaintance  interested  in  the  gentleman's  doings.  But 
his  object  was  to  have  a  look  at  a  rare  breed  of  swine, 
worth  the  journey;  that  didn't  run  to  fat  so  much  as  to 
flavour,  had  longer  legs,  sharp  snouts  to  plump  their  hams ; 
over  from  Spain,  it  seemed;  and  the  gentleman  owning 
them  was  for  selling  them,  finding  them  wild  past  correc- 
tion. But  the  acquaintance  mentioned,  who  was  down  to 
visit  t'other  gentleman's  big  new  edifice  in  workmen's 
hands,  had  a  mother,  who  had  been  cook  to  a  family,  and 
was  now  widow  of  a  cook's  shop;  ham,  beef,  and  sausages, 
prime  pies  to  order;  and  a  good  specimen  herself;  and  if 
ever  her  son  saw  her  spirit  at  his  bedside,  there  would  n't 
be  room  for  much  else  in  that  chamber  —  supposing  us  to 
keep  our  shapes.  But  he  was  the  right  sort  of  son,  anxious 
to  push  his  mother's  shop  where  he  saw  a  chance,  and  do 
it  cheap;  and  those  foreign  pigs,  after  a  disappointment 
to  their  importer,  might  be  had  pretty  cheap,  and  were 
accounted  tasty. 

Skepsey's  main  thought  was  upon  war:  the  man  had 
discoursed  of  pigs. 

He  informed  the  man  of  his  having  heard  from  a  scholar, 
that  pigs  had  been  the  cause  of  more  bloody  battles  than 
any  other  animal. 

How  so  ?  the  pork-butcher  asked,  and  said  he  was  not 
much  of  a  scholar,  and  pigs  might  be  provoking,  but  he 
had  not  heard  they  were  a  cause  of  strife  between  man  and 
man.  Eor  possession  of  them,  Skepsey  explained.  Oh! 
possession!  Why,  we  've  heard  of  bloody  battles  for  the 
possession  of  women !  Men  will  fight  for  almost  anything 
they  care  to  get  or  call  their  own,  the  pork-butcher  said ; 
and  he  praised  Old  England  for  avoiding  war.  Skepsey 
nodded.  How  if  war  is  forced  on  us?  —  Then  we  fight.  — 
Suppose  we  are  not  prepared?  —  We  soon  get  that  up.  — 
Skepsey  requested  him  to  state  the  degree  of  resistance  he 
might  think  he  could  bring  against  a  pair  of  skilful  fists, 
in  a  place  out  of  hearing  of  the  police. 

"  Say,  you  /  "  said  the  pork-butcher,  and  sharply  smiled, 
for  he  was  a  man  of  size. 

"I  would  give  you  two  minutes,"  rejoined  Skepsey, 
eyeing  him  intently  and  kindly :  insomuch  that  it  could  be 
seen  he  was  not  in  the  conundrum  vein. 


90  ONE  OF  OUB  COKQUEEOKS 

"  Kather  short  allowance,  eh,  master  ?  "  said  the  bigger 
man.  "  Feel  here ;  "  he  straightened  out  his  arm  and 
doubled  it,  raising  a  proud  bridge  of  muscle. 

Skepsey  performed  the  national  homage  to  muscle. 
"Twice  that,  would  not  help  without  the  science,"  he  re- 
marked, and  let  his  arm  be  gripped  in  turn. 

The  pork-butcher's  throat  sounded,  as  it  were,  commas 
and  colons,  punctuations  in  his  reflections,  while  he  tight- 
ened lingers  along  the  iron  lump.  "  Stringy.  You  're  a 
wiry  one,  no  mistake."  It  was  encomium.  With  the  in- 
grained contempt  of  size  for  a  smallness  that  has  not 
yet  taught  it  the  prostrating  lesson,  he  said;  "Weight 
tells." 

"In  a  wrestle,"  Skepsey  admitted.  "Allow  me  to  say, 
you  would  not  touch  me." 

"And  how  do  you  know  I  'm  not  a  trifle  handy  with  the 
maulers  myself?" 

"  You  will  pardon  me  for  saying,  it  would  be  worse  for 
you  if  you  were. " 

The  pork-butcher  was  flung  backward.  "Are  you  a 
Professor,  may  I  inquire  ?  " 

Skepsey  rejected  the  title.  "I  can  engage  to  teach 
young  men,  upon  a  proper  observance  of  first  principles." 

"  They  be  hanged ! "  cried  the  ruffled  pork-butcher. 
"Our  best  men  never  got  it  out  of  books.  Now,  you 
tell  me  —  you  've  got  a  spiflicating  style  of  talk  about  you : 
—  no  brag,  you  tell  me  —  course,  the  best  man  wins,  if  you 
mean  that :  —  now,  if  I  was  one  of  'em,  and  I  fetches  you  a 
bit  of  a  flick,  how  then  ?  Would  you  be  ready  to  step  out 
with  a  real  Professor  ?  " 

"I  should  claim  a  fair  field,"  was  the  answer,  made  in 
modesty. 

"  And  you  'd  expect  to  whop  me  with  they  there  princi- 
ples of  yours  ?  " 

"I  should  expect  to." 

"  Bang  me ! "  was  roared.  After  a  stare  at  the  mild 
little  figure  with  the  fitfully  dead-levelled  large  grey  eyes 
in  front  of  him,  the  pork-butcher  resumed:  "Take  you  for 
the  man  you  say  you  be,  you  're  just  the  man  for  my  friend 
Jam  and  me.  He  dearly  loves  to  see  a  set-to,  self  the 
same.     What  prettier  ?    And  if  you  would  be  so  obliging 


SKEPSEY  IN  MOTIOH  91 

some  day  as  to  favour  us  with  a  display,  we  'd  head  a  cap 
conformably,  whether  you  ^d  the  best  of  it,  according  to 
your  expectations,  or  t'  other  way :  —  For  there  never  was 
shame  in  a  jolly  good  licking !  as  the  song  says :  that  is,  if 
you  take  it  and  make  it  appear  jolly  good.  —  And  find  you 
an  opponent  meet  and  fit,  never  doubt.  Ever  had  the 
worse  of  an  encounter,  sir  ?  " 

"Often,  sir." 

"  Well,  that 's  good.  And  it  did  n't  destroy  your 
confidence  ?  " 

"Added  to  it,  I  hope." 

At  this  point,  it  became  a  crying  necessity  for  Skepsey 
to  escape  from  an  area  of  boastfulness,  into  which  he  had 
fallen  inadvertently;  and  he  hastened  to  apologize  "for 
his  personal  reference,"  that  was  intended  for  an  illustra- 
tion of  our  country  caught  unawares  by  a  highly  trained 
picked  soldiery,  inferior  in  numbers  to  the  patriotic  levies, 
but  sharp  at  the  edge  and  knowing  how  to  strike.  Meas- 
ure the  axe,  measure  the  tree;  and  which  goes  down  first  ? 

"Invasion,  is  it?  —  and  you  mean,  we're  not  to  hit 
back  ?  "  the  pork-butcher  bellowed,  and  presently  secured 
a  murmured  approbation  from  an  audience  of  three,  that 
had  begun  to  comprehend  the  dialogue,  and  strengthened 
him  in  a  manner  to  teach  Skepsey  the  foolishness  of  ever 
urging  analogies  of  too  extended  a  circle  to  close  sharply 
on  the  mark.  He  had  no  longer  a  chance,  he  was  over- 
borne, identified  with  the  fated  invader,  rolled  away  into 
the  chops  of  the  Channel,  to  be  swallowed  up  entire,  and 
not  a  rag  left  of  him,  but  John  Bull  tucking  up  his  shirt- 
sleeves on  the  shingle  beach,  ready  for  a  second  or  a  third} 
crying  to  them  to  come  on. 

Warmed  by  his  Bullish  victory,  and  friendly  to  the 
vanquished,  the  pork-butcher  told  Skepsey  he  should  like 
to  see  more  of  him,  and  introduced  himself  on  a  card: 
Benjamin  Shaplow,  not  far  from  the  Bank. 

They  parted  at  the  Terminus,  where  three  shrieks  of  an 
engine,  sounding  like  merry  messages  of  the  damned  to 
their  congeners  in  the  anticipatory  stench  of  the  cab- 
droppings  above,  disconnected  sane  hearing;  perverted  it, 
no  doubt.  Or  else  it  was  the  stamp  of  a  particular  name 
on  his    mind,   which    impressed    Skepsey,   aa  he  bored 


92  ONE  OF  OtJE  COKQtTEEORS 

down  the  street  and  across  the  bridge ,  to  fancy  in  recollec- 
tion, that  Mr.  Shaplow,  when  reiterating  the  wish  for  self 
and  friend  to  witness  a  display  of  his  cunning  with  the 
fists,  had  spoken  the  name  of  Jarniman.  An  unusual 
name:  yet  more  than  one  Jarniman  might  well  exist. 
^  And  unlikely  that  a  friend  of  the  pork- butcher  would  be 
the  person  whom  Mr.  Radnor  first  prohibited  and  then  de- 
sired to  receive.  It  hardly  mattered :  —  considering  that 
the  Dutch  Navy  did  really,  incredible  as  it  seems  now, 
come  sailing  a  good  way  up  the  Eiver  Thames,  into  the 
very  main  artery  of  Old  England.  And  what  thought  the 
Tower  of  it  ?  Skepsey  looked  at  the  Tower  in  sympathy, 
wondering  whether  the  Tower  had  seen  those  impudent 
Dutch :  a  nice  people  at  home,  he  had  heard.  Mr.  Shap- 
low^s  Jarniman  might  actually  be  Mr.  Radnor's ,  he  in- 
clined to  think.  At  any  rate  he  was  now  sure  of  the 
name. 


CHAPTER  XI 


WHEREIN     WE     BEHOLD     THE     COUPLE    JUSTIFIED    OP     LOVE 
HAVING   SIGHT   OF   THEIR  SCOURGE 

Eenellan,  in  a  musing  exclamation,  that  was  quite  spon- 
taneous, had  put  a  picture  on  the  departing  Skepsey,  as 
observed  from  an  end  of  the  Lakelands  upper  terrace-walk. 
"  Queer  little  water-wagtail  it  is ! "  And  Lady  Grace 
Halley  and  Miss  Graves  and  Mrs.  Cormyn,  snugly  silken 
dry  ones,  were  so  taken  with  the  pretty  likeness  after 
hearing  Victor  call  the  tripping  dripping  creature  the  hap- 
piest man  in  England,  that  they  nursed  it  in  their  minds 
for  a  Bewick  tailpiece  to  the  chapter  of  a  pleasant  rural 
day.  It  imbedded  the  day  in  an  idea  that  it  had  been 
rural. 

We  are  indebted  almost  for  construction  to  those  who 
will  define  us  briefly :  we  are  but  scattered  leaves  to  the 
general  comprehension  of  us  until  such  a  work  of  binding 
and  labelling  is  done.  And  should  the  definition  be  not 
so  correct  as  brevity  pretends  to  make  it  at  one  stroke,  we 


SIGHT  OF  THEIR  SCOUKGE  93 

are  at  least  rendered  portable ;  thus  we  pass  into  the  con- 
ceptions of  our  fellows,  into  the  records,  down  to  poster- 
ity. Anecdotes  of  England's  happiest  man  were  related, 
outlines  of  his  personal  history  requested.  His  nomina- 
tion in  chief  among  the  traditionally  very  merry  Islanders 
was  hardly  borne  out  by  the  tale  of  his  enchainment  with 
a  drunken  yokefellow  —  unless  upon  the  Durance  version 
of  the  felicity  of  his  countrymen;  still,  the  water- 
wagtail  carried  it,  Skepsey  trotted  into  memories.  Heroes 
conducted  up  Fame's  temple-steps  by  ceremonious  histo- 
rians, who  are  studious,  when  the  platform  is  reached,  of 
the  art  of  setting  them  beneath  the  flambeau  of  a  final 
image,  before  thrusting  them  inside  to  be  rivetted  on  their 
pedestals,  have  an  excellent  chance  of  doing  the  same,  let 
but  the  provident  narrators  direct  that  image  to  paint  the 
thing  a  moth-like  humanity  desires,  in  the  thing  it  shrinks 
from.  Miss  Priscilla  Graves  now  fastened  her  meditations 
upon  Skepsey ;  and  it  was  important  to  him. 

Tobacco  withdrew  the  haunting  shadow  of  the  Kev. 
Septimus  Barmby  from  Nesta.  She  strolled  beside  Louise 
de  Seilles,  to  breathe  sweet-sweet  in  the  dear  friend's  ear 
and  tell  her  she  loved  her.  The  presence  of  the  German 
had,  without  rousing  animosity,  damped  the  young  French- 
woman, even  to  a  revulsion  when  her  feelings  had  been 
touched  by  hearing  praise  of  her  France,  and  wounded  by 
the  subjects  of  the  praise.  She  bore  the  national  scar, 
which  is  barely  skin-clothing  of  a  gash  that  will  not  heal 
since  her  country  was  overthrown  and  dismembered. 
Colney  Durance  could  excuse  the  unreasonableness  in  her, 
for  it  had  a  dignity,  and  she  controlled  it,  and  quietly 
suffered,  trusting  to  the  steady,  tireless,  concentrated  aim 
of  her  France.  In  the  Gallic  mind  of  our  time,  France 
appears  as  a  prematurely  buried  Glory,  that  heaves  the 
mound  oppressing  breath  and  cannot  cease;  and  calls 
hourly,  at  times  keenly,  to  be  remembered,  rescued  from 
the  pain  and  the  mould-spots  of  that  foul  sepulture. 
Mademoiselle  and  Colney  were  friends,  partly  divided 
by  her  speaking  once  of  revanche  ;  whereupon  he  assumed 
the  chair  of  the  Moralist,  with  its  right  to  lecture,  and 
went  over  to  the  enemy;  his  talk  savoured  of  a  German. 
Qur  holding  of  the  balance,  taking  two  sides,  is  incompre- 


94  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROBS 

hensible  to  a  people  quivering  with  the  double  wound  to 
body  and  soul.  She  was  of  Breton  blood.  Cymric  enough 
was  in  Nesta  to  catch  any  thrill  from  her  and  join  to  her 
mood,  if  it  hung  out  a  colour  sad  or  gay,  and  was  noble, 
as  any  mood  of  this  dear  Louise  would  surely  be. 

Nataly  was  not  so  sympathetic.  Only  the  Welsh  and 
pure  Irish  are  quick  at  the  feelings  of  the  Celtic  French. 
Nataly  came  of  a  Yorkshire  stock;  she  had  the  bravery, 
humaneness  and  generous  temper  of  our  civilized  North , 
and  a  taste  for  mademoiselle's  fine  breeding,  with  a 
distaste  for  the  singular  air  of  superiority  in  composure 
which  it  was  granted  to  mademoiselle  to  wear  with  an 
unassailable  reserve  when  the  roughness  of  the  commercial 
boor  was  obtrusive.  She  said  of  her  to  Colney,  as  they 
watched  the  couple  strolling  by  the  lake  below:  "Nesta 
brings  her  out  of  her  frosts.  I  suppose  it 's  the  presence 
of  Dr.  Schlesien.  I  have  known  it  the  same  after  an  even- 
ing of  Wagner's  music." 

"Richard  Wagner  Germanized  ridicule  of  the  French 
when  they  were  down,"  said  Colney.  "She  comes  of  a 
blood  that  never  forgives." 

"  *  Never  forgives '  is  horrible  to  think  of !  I  fancied 
you  liked  your  *  Kelts,'  as  you  call  them." 

Colney  seized  on  a  topic  that  shelved  a  less  agreeable 
one  that  he  saw  coming.  "You  English  won't  descend  to 
understand  what  does  not  resemble  you.  The  French  are 
in  a  state  of  feverish  patriotism.  You  refuse  to  treat  them 
for  a  case  of  fever.  They  are  lopped  of  a  limb :  you  tell 
them  to  be  at  rest !  " 

"  You  know  I  am  fond  of  them." 

"And  the  Kelts,  as  they  are  called,  can't  and  won't 
forgive  injuries ;  look  at  Ireland,  look  at  Wales,  and  the 
Keltic  Scot.  Have  you  heard  them  talk  ?  It  happened  in 
the  year  1400 :  it 's  alive  to  them  as  if  it  were  yesterday. 
Old  History  is  as  dead  to  the  English  as  their  first  father. 
They  beg  for  the  privilege  of  pulling  the  forelock  to  the 
bearers  of  the  titles  of  the  men  who  took  their  lands  from 
them  and  turn  them  to  the  uses  of  cattle.  The  Saxon 
English  had,  no  doubt,  a  heavier  thrashing  than  any  people 
allowed  to  subsist  ever  received :  you  see  it  to  this  day ; 
the  crick  of  the  neck  at  the  name  of  a  lord  is  now  concealed 


SIGHT  OF  THEIR  SCOUUGE  95 

and  denied,  but  they  have  it  and  betray  the  effects ;  and 
it's  patent  in  their  Journals,  all  over  their  literature. 
Where  it 's  not  seen,  another  blood 's  at  work.  The  Kelt 
won't  accept  that  form  of  slavery.  Let  him  be  servile, 
supple,  cunning,  treacherous,  and  to  appearance  time-serving, 
he  will  always  remember  his  day  of  manly  independence 
and  who  robbed  him :  he  is  the  poetic  animal  of  the  races 
of  modern  men." 

"  You  give  him  Pagan  colours." 

"  Natural  colours.  He  does  not  offer  the  other  cheek  or 
turn  his  back  to  be  kicked  after  a  knock  to  the  ground. 
Instead  of  asking  him  to  forgive,  which  he  cannot  do,  you 
must  teach  him  to  admire.  A  mercantile  community 
guided  by  Political  Economy  from  the  ledger  to  the  ban- 
quet presided  over  by  its  Dagon  Capital,  finds  that  difficult. 
However,  there's  the  secret  of  him;  that  I  respect  in  him. 
His  admiration  of  an  enemy  or  oppressor  doing  great  deeds, 
wins  him  entirely.  He  is  an  active  spirit,  not  your  nega- 
tive passive  letter-of -Scripture  Insensible.  And  his  faults, 
short  of  ferocity,  are  amusing." 

"But  the  fits  of  ferocity  !  " 

*'They  are  inconscient,  real  fits.  They  come  of  a  hot 
nerve.  He  is  manageable,  sober,  too,  when  his  mind  is 
charged.  As  to  the  French  people,  they  are  the  most 
mixed  of  any  European  nation;  so  they  are  packed  with 
contrasts :  they  are  full  of  sentiment,  they  are  sharply 
logical ;  free-thinkers,  devotees  ;  affectionate,  ferocious ; 
frivolous,  tenacious ;  the  passion  of  the  season  operating 
like  sun  or  moon  on  these  qualities  ;  and  they  can  reach  to 
ideality  out  of  sensualism.  Below  your  level,  they  're  above 
it :  —  a  paradox  is  at  home  with  them !  " 

"My  friend,  you  speak  seriously  —  an  unusual  compli- 
ment," JSTataly  said,  and  ungratefully  continued :  "  You 
know  what  is  occupying  me.  I  want  your  opinion.  I 
guess  it.  I  want  to  hear  —  a  mean  thirst  perhaps,  and 
you  would  pay  me  any  number  of  compliments  to  avoid 
the  subject;  but  let  me  hear :  —  this  house  !  " 

Colney  shrugged  in  resignation.  "  Victor  works  himself 
out,"  he  replied. 

"  We  are  to  go  through  it  all  again  ?  " 

"  If  you  have  not  the  force  to  contain  him," 


96  ONE  OF  OUB  CONQXJEKOBS 

"  How  contain  him  ?  " 

Up  went  Colney's  shoulders. 

"  You  may  see  it  all  before  you,''  he  said,  "  straight  as 
the  Seine  chaussee  from  the  hill  of  La  Roche  Guyon." 

He  looked  for  her  recollection  of  the  scene. 

"Ah,  the  happy  ramble  that  year!"  she  cried.  "And 
my  Nesta  just  seven.  We  had  been  six  months  at  Craye. 
Every  day  of  our  life  together  looks  happy  to  me,  looking 
back,  though  I  know  that  every  day  had  the  same  troubles. 
I  don't  think  I  'm  deficient  in  courage ;  I  think  I  could  meet. 
.  .  .  But  the  false  position  so  cruelly  weakens  me.  I  am 
no  woman's  equal  when  I  have  to  receive  or  visit.  It  seems 
easier  to  meet  the  worst  in  life  —  danger,  death,  anything. 
Pardon  me  for  talking  so.  Perhaps  we  need  not  have  left 
Craye  or  Creckholt  .  .  .  ?"  she  hinted  an  interrogation. 
"  Though  I  am  not  sorry ;  it  is  not  good  to  be  where  one 
tastes  poison.  Here  it  may  be  as  deadly,  worse.  Dear 
friend,  I  am  so  glad  you  remember  La  Roche  Guyon.  He 
was  popular  with  the  dear  French  people." 

"  In  spite  of  his  accent." 

"  It  is  not  so  bad !  " 

«  And  that  you  '11  defend ! " 

"  Consider :  these  neighbours  we  come  among ;  they  may 
have  heard  ..." 

"  Act  on  the  assumption." 

"  You  forget  the  principal  character.  Victor  promises  ; 
he  may  have  learnt  a  lesson  at  Creckholt.  But  look  at 
this  house  he  has  built.  How  can  I  —  any  woman  —  con- 
tain him !    He  must  have  society." 

"  He  must  be  in  the  front.    He  has  talked  of  Parliament." 
Colney's  liver  took  the  thrust  of  a  skewer  through  it.     He 
spoke  as  in  meditative  encomium :  "  His  entry  into  Parlia- 
ment would  promote  himself  and  family  to  a  station  of 
eminence  naked  over  the  Clock  Tower  of  the  House." 

She  moaned.  "  At  the  vilest,  I  cannot  regret  my  conduct 
-—bear  what  I  may.  I  can  bear  real  pain:  what  kills  me 
is,  the  suspicion.  And  I  feel  it  like  a  guilty  wretch !  And 
I  do  not  feel  the  guilt !  I  should  do  the  same  again,  on 
reflection.  I  do  believe  it  saved  him.  I  do;  oh!  I  do,  I 
do.    I  cannot  expect  my  family  to  see  with  my  eyes.     You 


SIGHT  OF  THEIR  SCOURGE  97 

know  them  —  my  brotlier  and  sisters  think  I  have  disgraced 
them ;  they  put  no  value  on  my  saving  him.  It  sounds 
childish ;  it  is  true.  He  had  fallen  into  a  terrible  black 
mood." 

"  He  had  an  hour  of  gloom." 

"An  hour!" 

"  But  an  hour,  with  him  !    It  means  a  good  deal." 

"Ah,  friend,  I  take  your  words.  He  sinks  terribly  when 
he  sinks  at  all.  —  Spare  us  a  little  while.  —  We  have  to 
judge  of  what  is  good  in  the  circumstances  :  —  I  hear  your 
reply  !  But  the  principal  for  me  to  study  is  Victor.  You 
have  accused  me  of  being  the  voice  of  the  enamoured  woman. 
I  follow  him,  I  know ;  I  try  to  advise ;  I  find  it  is  wisdom 
to  submit.  My  people  regard  my  behaviour  as  a  wickedness 
or  a  madness.  I  did  save  him.  I  joined  my  fate  with  his. 
I  am  his  mate,  to  help,  and  I  cannot  oppose  him,  to  distract 
him.  I  do  my  utmost  for  privacy.  He  must  entertain. 
Believe  me,  I  feel  for  them — sisters  and  brother.  And 
now  that  my  sisters  are  married  .  .  .  My  brother  has  a 
man's  hardness." 

"Colonel  Dreighton  did  not  speak  harshly,  at  our  last 
meeting." 

"He  spoke  of  me?" 

"He  spoke  in  the  tone  of  a  brother. '' 

"Victor  promises  —  I  won't  repeat  it.  Yes,  I  see  the 
house  !  There  appears  to  be  a  prospect,  a  hope  —  I  cannot 
allude  to  it.  Craye  and  Creckholt  may  have  been  some 
lesson  to  him.  —  Selwyn  spoke  of  me  kindly  ?  Ah,  yes,  it 
is  the  way  with  my  people  to  pretend  that  Victor  has  been 
the  ruin  of  me,  that  they  may  come  round  to  family  senti- 
ments. In  the  same  way,  his  relatives,  the  Duvidney  ladies, 
have  their  picture  of  the  woman  misleading  him.  Imagine 
me  the  naughty  adventuress  ! " —  Nataly  falsified  the  thought 
insurgent  at  her  heart,  in  adding :  "  I  do  not  say  I  am  blame- 
less." It  was  a  concession  to  the  circumambient  enemy,  of 
whom  even  a  good  friend  was  a  part,  and  not  better  than 
a  respectful  emissary.  The  dearest  of  her  friends  belonged 
to  that  hostile  world.  Only  Victor,  no  other,  stood  with  her 
against  the  world.  Her  child,  yes ;  the  love  of  her  child 
she  had;  but  the  child's  destiny  was  an  alien  phantom, 
looking  at  her  with  harder  eyes  than  she  had  vision  of  in 

7    . 


98  ONE  OF   OUR   CONQUERORS 

her  family.  She  did  not  say  she  was  blameless,  did  not 
affect  the  thought.  She  would  have  wished  to  say,  for 
small  encouragement  she  would  have  said,  that  her  case 
could  be  pleaded. 

Colney's  features  were  not  inviting,  though  the  expres- 
sion was  not  repellent.  She  sighed  deeply ;  and  to  count 
on  something  helpful  by  mentioning  it,  reverted  to  the  ^  pros- 
pect' which  there  appeared  to  be.  ^^  Victor  speaks  of  the 
certainty  of  his  release." 

His  release!  Her  language  pricked  a  satirist's  gall- 
bladder. Colney  refrained  from  speaking  to  wound,  and 
enjoyed  a  silence  that  did  it. 

'^Do  you  see  any  possibility?  —  you  knew  her,"  she  said 
coldly. 

"  Counting  the  number  of  times  he  has  been  expecting  the 
release,  he  is  bound  to  believe  it  near  at  hand." 

"  You  don't  ?  "  she  asked :  her  bosom  was  up  in  a  crisis 
of  expectation  for  the  answer :  and  on  a  pause  of  half-a- 
minute,  she  could  have  uttered  the  answer  herself. 

He  perceived  the  insane  eagerness  through  her  mask,  and 
despised  it,  pitying  the  woman.  "  And  you  don't,"  he  said. 
"You  catch  at  delusions,  to  excuse  the  steps  you  consent 
to  take.  Or  you  want  me  to  wear  the  blinkers,  the  better 
to  hoodwink  your  own  eyes.  You  see  it  as  well  as  I :  —  If 
you  enter  that  house,  you  have  to  go  through  the  same  as  at 
Creckholt :  —  and  he'll  be  the  first  to  take  fright." 

"No." 

"  He  finds  you  in  tears :  he  is  immensely  devoted ;  he 
flings  up  all  to  protect  *  his  Nataly.' " 

"  No :  you  are  unjust  to  him.     He  would  fling  up  all :  — " 

"But  his  Nataly  prefers  to  be  dragged  through  fire? 
As  you  please !  " 

She  bowed  to  her  chastisement.  One  motive  in  her  con- 
sultation with  him  came  of  the  knowledge  of  his  capacity 
to  inflict  it  and  his  honesty  in  the  act,  and  a  thirst  she  had 
to  hear  the  truth  loud-tongued  from  him ;  together  with  a 
feeling  that  he  was  excessive  and  satiric,  not  to  be  read  by 
the  letter  of  his  words :  and  in  consequence,  she  could  bear 
the  lash  from  him,  and  tell  her  soul  that  he  overdid  it,  and 
have  an  unjustly-treated  self  to  cherish.  —  But  in  very  truth 
slje  W2^8  a  WQman  who  loved  to  hear  the  truth  j  she  was 


SIGHT   OF  THEIR   SCOUKGE  99 

formed  to  love  the  truth  her  position  reduced  her  to  violate ; 
she  esteemed  the  hearing  it  as  medical  to  her ;  she  selected 
for  counsellor  him  who  would  apply  it :  so  far  she  went  on 
the  straight  way ;  and  the  desire  for  a  sustaining  deception 
from  the  mouth  of  a  trustworthy  man  set  her  hanging  on 
his  utterances  with  an  anxious  hope  of  the  reverse  of  what 
was  to  come  and  what  she  herself  apprehended,  such  as 
checked  her  pulses  and  iced  her  feet  and  hngers.  The  reason 
being,  not  that  she  was  craven  or  absurd  or  paradoxical,  but 
that,  living  at  an  intenser  strain  upon  her  nature  than  she 
or  any  around  her  knew,  her  strength  snapped,  she  broke 
down  by  chance  there  where  Colney  was  rendered  spiteful  in 
beholding  the  display  of  her  inconsequent  if  not  puling 
sex. 

She  might  have  sought  his  counsel  on  another  subject,  if 
a  paralyzing  chill  of  her  frame  in  the  foreview  of  it  had 
allowed  her  to  speak :  she  felt  grave  alarms  in  one  direction, 
where  Nesta  stood  in  the  eye  of  her  father ;  besides  an  un- 
formed dread  that  the  simplicity  in  generosity  of  Victor's 
nature  was  doomed  to  show  signs  of  dross  ultimately, 
under  the  necessity  he  imposed  upon  himself  to  run  out 
his  forecasts,  and  scheme,  and  defensively  compel  the 
world  to  serve  his  ends,  for  the  protection  of  those  dear 
to  him. 

At  night  he  was  particularly  urgent  with  her  for  the 
harmonious  duet  in  praise  of  Lakelands;  and  plied  her 
with  questions  all  round  and  about  it,  to  bring  out  the 
dulcet  accord.  He  dwelt  on  his  choice  of  costly  marbles, 
his  fireplace  and  mantelpiece  designs,  the  great  hall,  and 
suggestions  for  imposing  and  beautiful  furniture ;  concord- 
antly  enough,  for  the  large,  the  lofty  and  rich  of  colour  won 
her  enthusiasm ;  but  overwhelmingly  to  any  mood  of  resist- 
ance ;  and  strangely  in  a  man  who  had  of  late  been  adopt- 
ing, as  if  his  own,  a  modern  tone,  or  the  social  and  literary 
hints  of  it,  relating  to  the  right  uses  of  wealth,  and  the 
duty  as  well  as  the  delight  of  living  simply. 

"Fredi  was  pleased." 

"Yes,  she  was,  dear." 

"  She  is  our  girl,  my  love.  *  I  could  live  and  die  here ! ' 
Live,  she  may.     There's  room  enough." 

!N^ataly  saw  the  door  of  a  covert  communication  pointed 


100  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

at  in  that  remark.  She  gathered  herself  for  an  effort  to 
do  battle. 

"  She 's  quite  a  child,  Victor." 

"The  time  begins  to  run.  We  have  to  look  forward 
now;  —  I  declare,  it's  I  who  seem  the  provident  mother 
for  Fredi!" 

"  Let  our  girl  wait ;  don't  hurry  her  mind  to  .  .  .  She  is 
happy  with  her  father  and  mother.  She  is  in  the  happiest 
time  of  her  life,  before  those  feelings  distract." 

"If  we  see  good  fortune  for  her,  we  can't  let  it  pass 
her." 

A  pang  of  the  resolution  now  to  debate  the  case  with 
Victor,  which  would  be  of  necessity  to  do  the  avoided  thing 
and  roll  up  the  forbidden  curtain  opening  on  their  whole 
history  past  and  prospective,  was  met  in  Nataly's  bosom  by 
the  more  bitter  immediate  confession  that  she  was  not  his 
match.  To  speak  would  be  to  succumb;  and  shamefully 
after  the  effort;  and  hopelessly  after  being  overborne  by 
him.  There  was  not  the  anticipation  of  a  set  contest  to 
animate  the  woman's  naturally  valiant  heart;  he  was  too 
strong:  and  his  vividness  in  urgency  overcame  her  in 
advance,  fascinated  her  sensibility  through  recollection; 
he  fanned  an  inclination,  lighted  it  to  make  it  a  passion, 
a  frenzied  resolve  —  she  remembered  how  and  when.  She 
had  quivering  cause  to  remember  the  fateful  day  of  her 
step,  in  a  letter  received  that  morning  from  a  married 
sister,  containing  no  word  of  endearment  or  proposal  for  a 
meeting.  An  unregretted  day,  if  Victor  would  think  of  the 
dues  to  others ;  that  is,  would  take  station  with  the  world 
to  see  his  reflected  position,  instead  of  seeing  it  through 
their  self-justifying  knowledge  of  the  honourable  truth  of 
their  love,  and  pressing  to  claim  and  snatch  at  whatsoever 
the  world  bestows  on  its  orderly  subjects. 

They  had  done  evil  to  no  one  as  yet.  Nataly  thought 
that ;  notwithstanding  the  outcry  of  the  ancient  and  with- 
ered woman  who  bore  Victor  Radnor's  name  :  for  whom,  in 
consequence  of  the  rod  the  woman  had  used,  this  tenderest 
of  hearts  could  summon  no  emotion.  If  she  had  it,  the 
thing  was  not  to  be  hauled  up  to  consciousness.  Her  feel- 
ing was,  that  she  forgave  the  wrinkled  Malignity :  pity  and 
contrition  dissolving  in  the  effort  to  produce  the  placable 


SIGHT?  OF  1illB,lU.  SCOURGE  •  101 

forgiveness.  She  was  frigid  because  she  knew  rightly  of 
herself,  that  she  in  the  place  of  power  would  never  have 
struck  so  meanly.  But  the  mainspring  of  the  feeling  in  an 
almost  remorseless  bosom  drew  from  certain  chance  expres- 
sions of  retrospective  physical  distaste  on  Victor's  part ;  — 
hard  to  keep  from  a  short  utterance  between  the  nuptial 
two,  of  whom  the  unshamed  exuberant  male  has  found  the 
sweet  reverse  in  his  mate,  a  haven  of  heavenliness,  to 
delight  in:  —  these  conjoined  with  a  woman's  unspoken 
pleading  ideas  of  her  own,  on  her  own  behalf,  had  armed 
her  jealously  in  vindication  of  Nature. 

Now,  as  long  as  they  did  no  palpable  wrong  about  them, 
Nataly  could  argue  her  case  in  her  conscience  —  deep  down 
and  out  of  hearing,  where  women  under  scourge  of  the  laws 
they  have  not  helped  decree  may  and  do  deliver  their  minds. 
She  stood  in  that  subterranean  recess  for  Nature  against  the 
Institutions  of  Man  :  a  woman  little  adapted  for  the  post  of 
rebel ;  but  to  this,  by  the  agency  of  circumstances,  it  had 
come ;  she  who  was  designed  by  nature  to  be  an  ornament 
of  those  Institutions  opposed  them :  and  when  thinking  of 
the  rights  and  the  conduct  of  the  decrepit  Legitimate  — 
virulent  in  a  heathen  vindictiveness  declaring  itself  holy  — 
she  had  Nature's  logic,  Nature's  voice,  for  self-defence.  It 
was  eloquent  with  her,  to  the  deafening  of  other  voices  in 
herself,  even  to  the  convincing  of  herself,  when  she  was 
wrought  by  the  fires  within  to  feel  elementally.  The  other 
voices  within  her  issued  of  the  acknowledged  dues  to  her 
family  and  to  the  world  —  the  civilization  protecting  women : 
sentences  thereanent  in  modern  books  and  Journals.  But  the 
remembrance  of  moods  of  fiery  exaltation,  when  the  Nature 
she  called  by  name  of  Love  raised  the  chorus  within  to  stop 
all  outer  buzzing,  was,  in  a  perpetual  struggle  with  a  whirl- 
pool, a  constant  support  while  she  and  Victor  were  one  at 
heart.  The  sense  of  her  standing  alone  made  her  sway ; 
and  a  thought  of  differences  with  him  caused  frightful 
apprehensions  of  the  abyss. 

Luxuriously  she  applied  to  his  public  life  for  witness  that 
he  had  governed  wisely  as  well  as  affectionately  so  long  ;  and 
he  might  therefore,  with  the  chorussing  of  the  world  of 
public  men,  expect  a  woman  blindfold  to  follow  his  lead. 
But  no  5  we  may  be  rebels  against  our  time  and  its  Laws : 


102  ONi;  qF.QTJR  CONQUEEORS 

if  we  are  really  for'  i^ature,  we  are  not  lawless.  Nataly's 
untutored  scruples,  which  came  side  by  side  with  her  ability 
to  plead  for  her  acts,  restrained  her  from  complicity  in  the 
ensnaring  of  a  young  man  of  social  rank  to  espouse  the 
daughter  of  a  couple  socially  insurgent  —  stained,  to  common 
thinking,  should  denunciation  come.  The  Nature  upholding 
her  fled  at  a  vision  of  a  stranger  entangled.  Pitiable  to 
reflect,  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  adventurer-lords  of  prey 
who  hunt  and  run  down  shadowed  heiresses  and  are  con- 
gratulated on  their  luck  in  a  tolerating  country !  How  was 
the  young  man  to  be  warned  ?  How,  under  the  happiest  of 
suppositions,  propitiate  his  family !  And  such  a  family,  if 
consenting  with  knowledge,  would  consent  only  for  the  love 
of  money.  It  was  angling  with  as  vile  a  bait  as  the  rascal 
lord's.  Humiliation  hung  on  the  scheme;  it  struck  to 
scorching  in  the  contemplation  of  it.  And  it  darkened  her 
reading  of  Victor's  character. 

She  did  not  ask  for  the  specification  of  a  "  good  fortune 
that  might  pass ; ''  wishing  to  save  him  from  his  wonted 
twists  of  elusiveness,  and  herself  with  him  from  the  dread 
discussion  it  involved  upon  one  point. 

"  The  day  was  pleasant  to  all,  except  perhaps  poor  made- 
moiselle," she  said. 

"  Peridon  should  have  come  ? '' 

"  Present  or  absent,  his  chances  are  not  brilliant,  I  fear/' 

"  And  Pempton  and  Priscy !  " 

"  They  are  growing  cooler  ! " 

"  With  their  grotesque  objections  to  one  another's  habits 
at  table ! '' 

"  Can  we  ever  hope  to  get  them  over  it  ?  " 

"  When  Priscy  drinks  Port  and  Pempton  munches  beef, 
Colney  says." 

"  I  should  say,  when  they  feel  warmly  enough  to  think 
little  of  their  differences." 

"  Fire  smoothes  the  creases,  yes ;  and  fire  is  what  they  're 
both  wanting  in.  Though  Priscy  has  Concert-pathos  in  her 
voice :  —  could  n't  act  a  bit !  And  Pempton's  'cello  tones 
now  and  then  have  gone  through  me  —  simply  from  his 
fiddle-bow,  I  believe.  Don't  talk  to  me  of  feeling  in  a 
couple,  within  reach  of  one  another  and  sniffing  objections. 
—  Good,  then,  for  a  successful  day  to-day  so  far  ?  " 


MEMBERS  OF  A  HOUSEHOLD  103 

He  neared  her,  wooing  her;  and  she  assented,  with  a 
franker  smile  than  she  had  worn  through  the  day. 

The  common  burden  on  their  hearts  —  the  simple  discus- 
sion to  come  of  the  task  of  communicating  dire  actualities 
to  their  innocent  Nesta  —  was  laid  aside. 


CHAPTER  XII 

TREATS    OF    THE  DUMBNESS    POSSIBLE   WITH   MEMBERS    OF   A 
HOUSEHOLD    HAVING   ONE    HEART 

Two  that  live  together  in  union  are  supposed  to  be  inti- 
mate on  every  leaf.  Particularly  when  they  love  one  an- 
other and  the  cause  they  have  at  heart  is  common  to  them 
in  equal  measure,  the  uses  of  a  cordial  familiarity  forbid  re- 
serves upon  important  matters  between  them,  as  we  think ; 
not  thinking  of  an  imposed  secretiveness,  beneath  the  false 
external  of  submissiveness,  which  comes  of  an  experience  of 
peated  inefficiency  to  maintain  a  case  in  opposition,  on  the 
part  of  the  loquently  weaker  of  the  pair.  In  Constitutional 
Kingdoms  a  powerful  Government  needs  not  to  be  tyranni- 
cal to  lean  oppressively;  it  is  more  serviceable  to  party  than 
agreeable  to  country;  and  where  the  alliance  of  men  and 
women  binds  a  loving  couple,  of  whom  one  is  a  torrent  of 
persuasion,  their  differings  are  likely  to  make  the  other 
resemble  a  log  of  the  torrent.  It  is  borne  along ;  it  dreams 
of  a  distant  corner  of  the  way  for  a  determined  stand ;  it 
consents  to  its  whirling  in  anticipation  of  an  undated  hour 
when  it  will  no  longer  be  neutral. 

There  may  be,  moreover,  while  each  has  the  key  of  the 
fellow  breast,  a  mutually  sensitive  nerve  to  protest  against 
intrusion  of  light  or  sound.  The  cloud  over  the  name  of 
their  girl  could  now  strike  Nataly  and  Victor  dumb  in  their 
taking  of  counsel.  She  divined  that  his  hint  had  encouraged 
him  to  bring  the  crisis  nearer,  and  he  that  her  comprehension 
had  become  tremblingly  awake.  They  shrank,  each  of  them, 
the  more  from  an  end  drawing  closely  into  view.  All  sub- 
jects glooming  off  or  darkening  up  to  it  were  shunned  by 


104  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

them  verbally,  and  if  they  found  themselves  entering  be- 
neath that  shadow,  conversation  passed  to  an  involuntary 
gesture,  more  explicit  with  him,  significant  of  the  prohibited, 
though  not  acknowledging  it. 

All  the  stronger  was  it  Victor's  purpose,  leaping  in  his 
fashion  to  the  cover  of  action  as  an  escape  from  perplexity, 
to  burn  and  scheme  for  the  wedding  of  their  girl  —  the  safe 
wedding  of  that  dearest,  to  have  her  protected,  secure,  with 
the  world  warm  about  her.  And  he  well  knew  why  his 
Nataly  had  her  look  of  a  closed  vault  (threatening,  if 
opened,  to  thunder  upon  Life)  when  he  dropped  his  further 
hints.  He  chose  to  call  it  feminine  inconsistency,  in  a 
woman  who  walked  abroad  with  a  basket  of  marriage-ties 
for  the  market  on  her  arm.  He  knew  that  she  would  soon 
have  to  speak  the  dark  words  to  their  girl ;  and  the  idea 
of  any  doing  of  it,  caught  at  his  throat.  Reasonably  she 
dreaded  the  mother's  task ;  pardonably  indeed.  But  it  is 
for  the  mother  to  do,  with  a  girl.  He  deputed  it  lightly  to 
the  mother  because  he  could  see  himself  stating  the  facts 
to  a  son.  "And,  my  dear  boy,  you  will  from  this  day 
draw  your  five  thousand  a  year,  and  we  double  it  on  the 
day  of  your  marriage,  living  at  Lakelands  or  where  you 
will." 

His  desire  for  his  girl's  protection  by  the  name  of  one  of 
our  great  Families,  urged  him  to  bind  Nataly  to  the  fact, 
with  the  argument  that  it  was  preferable  for  the  girl  to 
hear  their  story  during  her  green  early  youth,  while  she 
reposed  her  beautiful  blind  faith  in  the  discretion  of  her 
parents,  and  as  an  immediate  step  to  the  placing  of  her 
hand  in  a  husband's.  He  feared  that  her  mother  required 
schooling  to  tell  the  story  vindicatingly  and  proudly,  in  a 
manner  to  distinguish  instead  of  degrading  or  temporarily 
seeming  to  accept  degradation. 

The  world  would  weigh  on  her  confession  of  the  weight 
of  the  world  on  her  child;  she  would  want  inciting  and 
strengthening,  if  one  judged  of  her  capacity  to  meet  the 
trial  by  her  recent  bearing ;  and  how  was  he  to  do  it !  He 
could  not  imagine  himself  encountering  the  startled,  tremu- 
lous, nascent  intelligence  in  those  pure  brown  dark-lashed 
eyes  of  Nesta;  he  pitied  the  poor  mother.  Fancifully 
directing  her  to  say  this  and  that  to  the  girl,  his  tongue  ran 


MEMBEES   OP  A  HOUSEHOLD  105 

till  it  was  cut  from  his  heart  and  left  to  wag  dead  colourless 
words. 

The  prospect  of  a  similar  business  of  exposition,  certainly 
devolving  upon  the  father  in  treaty  with  the  fortunate 
youth,  gripped  at  his  vitals  a  minute,  so  intense  was  his 
pride  in  appearing  woundless  and  scarless,  a  shining  surface, 
like  pure  health's,  in  the  sight  of  men.  Nevertheless  he 
skimmed  the  story,  much  as  a  lecturer  strikes  his  wand  on 
the  prominent  places  of  a  map,  that  is  to  show  us  how  he 
arrived  at  the  principal  point,  which  we  are  all  agreed  to 
find  chiefly  interesting.  This  with  Victor  was  the  naming 
of  Nesta's  bridal  endowment.  He  rushed  to  it.  "  My  girl 
will  have  ten  thousand  a  year  settled  on  her  the  day  of  her 
marriage."     Choice  of  living  at  Lakelands  was  offered. 

It  helped  him  over  the  unpleasant  part  of  that  interview. 
At  the  same  time,  it  moved  him  to  a  curious  contempt  of  the 
youth.  He  had  to  conjure-up  an  image  of  the  young  man  in 
person,  to  correct  the  sentiment ;  and  it  remained  as  a  kind 
of  bruise  only  half  cured. 

Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby  was  not  one  of  the  youths  whose 
presence  would  rectify  such  an  abstract  estimate  of  the 
genus  pursuer.  He  now  came  frequently  of  an  evening,  to 
practise  a  duet  for  flutes  with  Victor;  —  a  Mercadante, 
honeyed  and  flowing ;  too  honeyed  to  suit  a  style  that,  as 
Fenellan  characterized  it  to  Nataly,  went  through  the  musio 
somewhat  like  an  inquisitive  tourist  in  a  foreign  town, 
conscientious  to  get  to  the  end  of  the  work  of  pleasure ; 
until  the  notes  had  become  familiar,  when  it  rather  re- 
sembled a  constable's  walk  along  the  midnight  streets  into 
collision  with  a  garlanded  roysterer ;  and  the  man  of  order 
and  the  man  of  passion,  true  to  the  measure  though  they 
were,  seeming  to  dissent,  almost  to  wrangle,  in  their  differ- 
ent ways  of  winding  out  the  melody,  on  to  the  last  move- 
ment ;  which  was  plainly  a  question  between  home  to  the 
strayed  reveller's  quarters  or  off  to  the  lock-up.  Victor 
was  altogether  the  younger  of  the  two.  But  his  vehement 
accompaniment  was  a  tutorship ;  Mr.  Sowerby  improved  ; 
it  was  admitted  by  Nesta  and  mademoiselle  that  he  gained 
a  show  of  feeling ;  he  had  learnt  that  feeling  was  wanted. 
Passion,  he  had  not  a  notion  of :  otherwise  he  would  not  be 
delaying  ; — the  interview,  dramatized  by  the  father  of  the 


106  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQUERORS 

young  bud  of  womanliood,  would  be  taking  place,  and  the 
entry  into  Lakelands  calculable,  for  Nataly's  comfort,  as 
under  the  aegis  of  the  Cantor  earldom.  Gossip  flies  to  a 
wider  circle  round  the  members  of  a  great  titled  family,  is 
inaudible ;  or  no  longer  the  diptherian  whisper  the  com- 
monalty hear  of  the  commonalty :  and  so  we  see  the  social 
uses  of  our  aristocracy  survive.  We  do  not  want  the  shield 
of  any  family;  it  is  the  situation  that  wants  it;  Nataly 
ought  to  be  awake  to  the  fact.  One  blow  and  we  have 
silenced  our  enemy :  Nesta's  wedding-day  has  relieved  her 
parents. 

Victor's  thoughts  upon  the  instrument  for  striking  that 
blow,  led  him  to  suppose  Mr.  Sowerby  might  be  meditating 
on  the  extent  of  the  young  lady's  fortune.  He  talked  ran- 
domly of  money,  in  a  way  to  shatter  Nataly's  conception  of 
him.  He  talked  of  City  affairs  at  table,  as  it  had  been  his 
practise  to  shun  the  doing ;  and  hit  the  resounding  note  on 
mines,  which  have  risen  in  the  market  like  the  crest  of  a 
serpent,  casting  a  certain  spell  upon  the  mercantile  under- 
standing. "  Fredi's  diamonds  from  her  own  mine,  or  what 
once  was  —  and  she  still  reserves  a  share,"  were  to  be  shown 
to  Mr.  Sowerby. 

Nataly  respected  the  young  fellow  for  not  displaying 
avidity  at  the  flourish  of  the  bait,  however  it  might  be 
affecting  him ;  and  she  fancied  that  he  did  laboriously,  in 
his  way  earnestly,  study  her  girl,  to  sound  for  harmony 
between  them,  previous  to  a  wooing.  She  was  a  closer 
reader  of  social  character  than  Victor ;  from  refraining  to 
run  on  the  broad  lines  which  are  but  faintly  illustrative  of 
the  individual  one  in  being  common  to  all  —  unless  we  have 
hit  by  chance  on  an  example  of  the  downright  in  roguery  or 
folly  or  simple  goodness.  Mr.  Sowerby's  bearing  to  Nesta 
was  hardly  warmed  by  the  glitter  of  diamonds.  His  next 
visit  showed  him  livelier  in  courtliness,  brighter,  fresher ; 
but  that  was  always  his  way  at  the  commencement  of  every 
visit,  as  if  his  reflections  on  the  foregone  had  come  to  a 
satisfactory  conclusion ;  and  the  labours  of  the  new  study 
of  the  maiden  ensued  again  in  due  course  to  deaden  him. 

Gentleman  he  was.  In  the  recognition  of  his  quality  as 
a  man  of  principle  and  breeding,  Nataly  was  condemned  by 
thoughts  of  Kesta's  future  to  question  whether  word  or  act 


jMembers  of  a  household  107 

of  hers  should,  if  inclination  on  both  sides  existed,  stand 
between  her  girl  and  a  true  gentleman.  She  counselled 
herself,  as  if  the  counsel  were  in  requisition,  to  be  passive ; 
and  so  doing,  she  more  acutely  than  Victor  —  save  in  his 
chance  flashes  —  discerned  the  twist  of  her  very  nature 
caused  by  their  false  position.  And  her  panacea  for  ills, 
the  lost  little  cottage,  would  not  have  averted  it :  she  would 
there  have  had  the  same  coveting  desire  to  name  a  man  of 
breeding,  honour,  station,  for  Nesta*s  husband.  Perhaps  in 
the  cottage,  choosing  at  leisure,  her  consent  to  see  the 
brilliant  young  creature  tied  to  the  best  of  dull  men  would 
have  been  unready,  without  the  girl  to  push  it.  For  the 
Hon.  Dudley  was  lamentably  her  pupil  in  liveliness;  he 
took  the  second  part,  as  it  is  painful  for  a  woman  with  the 
old-fashioned  ideas  upon  the  leading  of  the  sexes  to  behold ; 
resembling  in  his  look  the  deaf,  who  constantly  require  to 
have  an  observation  repeated;  resembling  the  most  intelli- 
gent of  animals,  which  we  do  not  name,  and  we  reprove 
ourselves  for  seeing  a  likeness. 

Yet  the  likeness  or  apparent  likeness  would  suggest  that 
we  have  not  so  much  to  fear  upon  the  day  of  the  expla- 
nation to  him.  Some  gain  is  there.  Shameful  thought ! 
Nataly  hastened  her  mind  to  gather  many  instances  or 
indications  testifying  to  the  sterling  substance  in  young 
Mr.  Sowerby,  such  as  a  mother  would  pray  for  her  son-in- 
law  to  possess.  She  discovered  herself  feeling  as  the 
burdened  mother,  not  providently  for  her  girl,  in  the  choice 
of  a  mate.  The  perception  was  clear,  and  not  the  less  did 
she  continue  working  at  the  embroidery  of  Mr.  Sowerby  on 
the  basis  of  his  excellent  moral  foundations,  all  the  while 
hoping,  praying,  that  he  might  not  be  lured  on  to  the  pro- 
posal for  Nesta.  But  her  subservience  to  the  power  of  the 
persuasive  will  in  Victor  —  which  was  like  the  rush  of  a 
conflagration — compelled  her  to  think  realizingly  of  any 
scheme  he  allowed  her  darkly  to  read.  Opposition  to  him, 
was  comparable  to  the  stand  of  blocks  of  timber  before 
flame.  Colney  Durance  had  done  her  the  mischief  we  take 
from  the  pessimist  when  we  are  overweighted :  in  darken- 
ing the  vision  of  external  aid  from  man  or  circumstance  to 
one  who  felt  herself  mastered.  Victor  could  make  her 
treacherous  to  her  wishes,  in  revolt  against  them,  though 


108  ONE  OF  OITK  CONQtJEROES 

the  heart  protested.  His  first  conquest  of  her  was  in  her 
blood,  to  weaken  a  spirit  of  resistance.  For  the  precedent 
of  submission  is  a  charm  upon  the  faint-hearted  through 
love :  it  unwinds,  unwills  them.  !N"ataly  resolved  fixedly, 
that  there  must  be  a  day  for  speaking ;  and  she  had  her 
moral  sustainment  in  the  resolve  ;  she  had  also  a  torment- 
ing consciousness  of  material  support  in  the  thought,  that 
the  day  was  not  present,  was  possibly  distant,  might  never 
arrive.  Would  Victor's  release  come  sooner?  And  that 
was  a  prospect  bearing  resemblance  to  hopes  of  the  cure  of 
a  malady  through  a  sharp  operation. 

These  were  matters  going  on  behind  the  curtain;  as 
wholly  vital  to  her,  and  with  him  at  times  almost  as  domi- 
nant, as  the  spiritual  in  memory,  when  flesh  has  left  but 
its  shining  track  in  dust  of  a  soul  outwritten ;  and  all  their 
talk  related  to  the  purchase  of  furniture,  the  expeditions  to 
Lakelands,  music,  public  affairs,  the  pardonable  foibles  of 
friends  created  to  amuse  their  fellows,  operatic  heroes  and 
heroines,  exhibitions  of  pictures,  the  sorrows  of  Crowned 
Heads,  so  serviceable  ever  to  mankind  as  an  admonition  to 
the  ambitious,  a  salve  to  the  envious  !  —  in  fine,  whatsoever 
can  entertain  or  affect  the  most  social  of  couples,  domesti- 
cally without  a  care  to  appearance.  And  so  far  they  par- 
tially—  dramatically —  deceived  themselves  by  imposing  on 
the  world  while  they  talked  and  duetted ;  for  the  purchase 
of  furniture  from  a  flowing  purse  is  a  cheerful  occupation ; 
also  a  City  issuing  out  of  hospital,  like  this  poor  City  of 
London,  inspires  good  citizens  to  healthy  activity.  But  the 
silence  upon  what  they  were  most  bent  on,  had  the  sinister 
effect  upon  Victor,  of  obscuring  his  mental  hold  of  the 
beloved  woman,  drifting  her  away  from  him.  In  communi- 
cating Fenellan's  news  through  the  lawyer  Carling  of  Mrs. 
Burman's  intentions,  he  was  aware  that  there  was  an 
obstacle  to  his  being  huggingly  genial,  even  candidly  genial 
with  her,  until  he  could  deal  out  further  news,  corroborative 
and  consecutive,  to  show  the  action  of  things  as  progressive. 
Fenellan  had  sunk  into  his  usual  apathy  :  —  and  might  plead 
the  impossibility  of  his  moving  faster  than  the  woman  pro- 
fessing to  transform  herself  into  beneficence  out  of  malig- 
nity ;  —  one  could  hear  him  saying  the  words  !  Victor  had 
ngt  seen  him  since  last  Concert  evening,  and  he  deemed  it 


THE  LATEST  OF  MRS.   BURMAN  109 

as  well  to  hear  the  words  Fenellan's  mouth  had  to  say.  He 
called  at  an  early  hour  of  the  Westward  tidal  flow  at  the 
Insurance  Office  looking  over  the  stormy  square  of  the  first 
of  Seamen. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   LATEST  OF    MRS.    BURIHAN 

After  cursory  remarks  about  the  business  of  the  Office 
and  his  friend's  contributions  to  periodical  literature,  in 
which  he  was  interested  for  as  long  as  he  had  assurance 
that  the  safe  income  depending  upon  official  duties  was  not 
endangered  by  them,  Victor  kicked  his  heels  to  and  fro. 
Fenellan  waited  for  him  to   lead. 

"  Have  you  seen  that  man,  her  lawyer,  again  ?  " 

*^  I  have  dined  with  Mr.  Carling :  —  capital  claret." 

Emptiness  was  in  the  reply. 

Victor  curbed  himself  and  said :  "  By  the  way,  you  ^re  not 
likely  to  have  dealings  with  Blathenoy.  The  fellow  has  a 
screw  to  the  back  of  a  shifty  eye ;  I  see  it  at  work  to  fix  the 
look  for  business.  I  shall  sit  on  the  Board  of  my  Bank. 
One  hears  things.  He  lives  in  style  at  Wrensham.  By  the 
way,  Fredi  has  little  Mab  Mountney  from  Creckholt  staying 
with  her.  You  said  of  little  Mabsy  — '  Here  she  comes  into 
the  room  all  pink  and  white,  like  a  daisy.'  She 's  the  daisy 
still ;  reminds  us  of  our  girl  at  that  age.  —  So,  then,  we 
come  to  another  dead  block !  *' 

"  Well,  no ;  it 's  a  chemist's  shop,  if  that  helps  us  on," 
said  Eenellan,  settling  to  a  new  posture  in  his  chair. 
"  She 's  there  of  an  afternoon  for  hours." 

"  You  mean  it 's  she  ?  " 

"  The  lady.  I  '11  tell  you.  I  have  it  from  Carling,  worthy 
man ;  and  lawyers  can  be  brought  to  untruss  a  point  over  a 
cup  of  claret.  He 's  a  bit  of  a  *  Mackenzie  Man,'  as  old  aunts 
of  mine  used  to  say  at  home  —  a  Man  of  Feeling.  Thinks  he 
knows  the  world,  from  having  sifted  and  sorted  a  lot  of  our 
dustbins ;  as  the  modern  Realists  imagine  it 's  an  exposition 


110  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOBS 

of  positive  human  nature  when  they've  pulled  down  our 
noses  to  the  worst  parts  —  if  there 's  a  worse  where  all  are 
useful :  but  the  Eealism  of  the  dogs  is  to  have  us  by  the 
nose:  — excite  it,  and  befoul  it,  and  you  're  fearfully  credi- 
ble !  You  don't  read  that  olfactory  literature.  However, 
friend  Carling  is  a  conciliatory  carle.  Three  or  four  days 
of  the  week  the  lady,  he  says,  drives  to  her  chemist's,  and 
there  she  sits  in  the  shop ;  round  the  corner,  as  you  enter ; 
and  sees  all  Charing  in  the  shop  looking-glass  at  the  back ; 
herself  a  stranger  spectacle,  poor  lady,  if  Carling's  picture 
of  her  is  not  overdone;  with  her  fashionable  no-bonnet 
striding  the  contribution  chignon  on  the  crown,  and  a  huge 
square  green  shade  over  her  forehead.  Sits  hours  long,  and 
cocks  her  ears  at  orders  of  applicants  for  drugs  across  the 
counter,  and  sometimes  catches  wind  of  a  prescription,  and 
consults  her  chemist,  and  thinks  she  '11  try  it  herself.  It 's 
a  basket  of  medicine  bottles  driven  to  Regent's  Park  pretty 
well  every  day." 

"  Ha !  Eegent's  Park ! "  exclaimed  Victor,  and  shook  at 
recollections  of  the  district  and  the  number  of  the  house, 
dismal  to  him.  London  buried  the  woman  deep  until  a 
mention  of  her  sent  her  flaring  over  London.  "  A  chemist's 
shop !     She  sits  there  ?  " 

^'  Mrs.  Burman.    We  pass  by  the  shop." 

"  She  had  always  a  turn  for  drugs.  —  Not  far  from  here, 
did  you  say  ?    And  every  day !  under  a  green  shade  ?  " 

*^Dear  fellow,  don't  be  suggesting  ballads ;  we  '11  go  now," 
said  Fenellan.  ^^  It 's  true  it 's  like  sitting  on  the  banks  of 
the  Stygian  waters." 

He  spied  at  an  obsequious  watch,  that  told  him  it  w^as 
time  to  quit  the  office. 

"  You  've  done  nothing  ?  "  Victor  asked  in  a  tone  of  no 
expectation. 

^'  Only  to  hear  that  her  latest  medical  man  is  Themison." 

"  Where  did  you  hear  ?  " 

"Across  the  counter  of  Boyle  and  Luckwort,  the  lady's 
chemists.  I  called  the  day  before  yesterday,  after  you  were 
here  at  our  last  Board  Meeting." 

"  The  Themison?  " 

*'  The  great  Dr.  Themison ;  who  kills  you  kindlier  than 
most,  and  is  much  in  request  for  it." 


THE  LATEST  OF  MRS.   BURMAN  111 

"There's  one  of  j^our  echoes  of  Colney!''  Victor  cried. 
*'  One  gets  dead  sick  of  that  worn-out  old  jibeing  at  doctors. 
They  don't  kill,  you  know  very  well.  It's  not  to  their 
interest  to  kill.  They  may  take  the  relish  out  of  life ;  and 
upon  my  word,  I  believe  that  helps  to  keep  the  patient 
living ! " 

Fenellan  sent  an  eye  of  discreet  comic  penetration  travel- 
ling through  his  friend. 

"  The  City  's  mending  ;  it 's  not  the  weary  widow  woman 
of  the  day  when  we  capsized  the  diurnal  with  your  royal 
Old  Veuve,"  he  said,  as  they  trod  the  pavement.  ^*  Funny 
people,  the  English!  They  give  you  all  the  primeing 
possible  for  amusement  and  jollity,  and  devil  a  sentry-box 
for  the  exercise  of  it;  and  if  you  shake  a  leg  publicly, 
partner  or  not,  you're  marched  off  to  penitence.  I  com- 
plain, that  they  have  no  philosophical  appreciation  of 
human  nature." 

"  We  pass  the  shop  ?  "  Victor  interrupted  him. 

"  You  're  in  view  of  it  in  a  minute.  And  what  a  square, 
for  recreative  dancing!  And  what  a  people,  to  be  turning 
it  into  a  place  of  political  agitation  I  And  what  a  country, 
where  from  morning  till  night  it 's  an  endless  wrangle 
about  the  first  conditions  of  existence !  Old  Colney  seems 
right  now  and  then  :  — they  're  the  offspring  of  pirates,  and 
they've  got  the  manners  and  tastes  of  their  progenitors, 
and  the  trick  of  quarrelling  everlastingly  over  the  booty. 
I  'd  have  band-music  here  for  a  couple  of  hours,  three  days 
of  the  week  at  the  least ;  and  down  in  the  East ;  and  that 
forsaken  North  quarter  of  London;  and  the  Baptist  South, 
too.  But  just  as  those  omnibus-wheels  are  the  miserable 
music'of  this  London  of  ours,  it 's  only  too  sadly  true  that 
the  people  are  in  the  first  rumble  of  the  notion  of  the 
proper  way  to  spend  their  lives.  ISTow  you  see  the  shop : 
Boyle  and  Luckwort :  there." 

Victor  looked.  He  threw  his  coat  open,  and  pulled  the 
waistcoat,  and  swelled  it,  ahemming.  "  That  shop  ?  "  said 
he.  And  presently:  "Eenellan,  I'm  not  superstitious,  I 
think.  Now  listen;  I  declare  to  you,  on  the  day  of  our 
drinking  Old  Veuve  together  last  —  you  remember  it,  —  I 
walked  home  up  this  way  across  the  square,  and  I  was  about  \/ 
to  step  into  that  identical  shop,  for  some  household  prescrip- 


112  ONE  OF   OUR   CONQUERORS 

tion  in  my  pocket,  having  forgotten  Nataly's  favourite  City 
chemists  Fenbird  and  Jay,  when  —  I  'm  stating  a  fact  —  I 
distinctly  —  I  ^m  sure  of  the  shop  —  felt  myself  plucked 
back  by  the  elbow ;  pulled  back :  the  kind  of  pull  when  you 
have  to  put  a  foot  backward  to  keep  your  equilibrium." 

So  does  memory  inspired  by  the  sensations  contribute  an 
additional  item  for  the  colouring  of  history. 

He  touched  the  elbow,  showed  a  flitting  face  of  crazed 
amazement  in  amusement,  and  shrugged  and  half-laughed, 
dismissing  the  incident,  as  being  perhaps,  if  his  hearer  chose 
to  have  it  so,  a  gem  of  the  rubbish  tumbled  into  the  dust- 
cart out  of  a  rather  exceptional  householder's  experience. 

Fenellan  smiled  indulgently.  "  Queer  things  happen.  I 
recollect  reading  in  my  green  youth  of  a  clergyman,  who 
mounted  a  pulpit  of  the  port  where  he  was  landed  after  his 
almost  solitary  rescue  from  a  burning  ship  at  midnight  in 
mid-sea,  to  inform  his  congregation,  that  he  had  overnight 
of  the  catastrophe  a  personal  Warning  right  in  his  ear  from 
a  Voice,  when  at  his  bed  or  bunk-side,  about  to  perform  the 
beautiful  ceremony  of  undressing  :  and  the  Eev.  gentleman 
was  to  lie  down  in  his  full  uniform,  not  so  much  as  to  relieve 
himself  of  his  hoots,  the  Voice  insisted  twice;  and  he  obeyed 
it,  despite  the  discomfort  to  his  poor  feet ;  and  he  jumped 
up  in  his  boots  to  the  cry  of  Fire,  and  he  got  them  providen- 
tially over  the  scuffling  deck  straight  at  the  first  rush  into 
the  boat  awaiting  them,  and  had  them  safe  on  and  polished 
the  day  he  preached  the  sermon  of  gratitude  for  the  special 
deliverance.  There  was  a  Warning  !  and  it  might  well  be 
called,  as  he  called  it,  from  within.  We  're  cared  for,  never 
doubt.  Aide-toi.  Be  ready  dressed  to  help  yourself  in  a 
calamity,  or  you  '11  not  stand  in  boots  at  your  next  Sermon, 
contrasting  with  the  burnt.     That  sounds  like  the  moral.'' 

"  She  could  have  seen  me,"  Victor  threw  out  an  irritable 
suggestion.  The  idea  of  the  recent  propinquity  set  hatred 
in  motion. 

"  Scarcely  likely.  I  'm  told  she  sits  looking  on  her  lap, 
under  the  beetling  shade,  until  she  hears  an  order  for 
tinctures  or  powders,  or  a  mixture  that  strikes  her  fancy. 
It 's  possible  to  do  more  suicidal  things  than  sit  the  after- 
noons in  a  chemist's  shop  and  see  poor  creatures  get  their 
different  passports  to  Orcus." 


THE  LATEST  OF  MRS.  BTJRMAN  113 

Victor  stepped  mutely  beneath  the  windows  of  the  bellied 
glass-urns  of  chemical  wash.  The  woman  might  be  inside 
there  now!  She  might  have  seen  his  figure  in  the  shop- 
rairror!  And  she  there!  The  wonder  of  it  all  seemed  to 
be,  that  his  private  history  was  not  walking  the  streets. 
The  thinness  of  the  partition  concealing  it,  hardly  guar- 
anteed a  day's  immunity  :  — because  this  woman  would  live 
in  London,  in  order  to  have  her  choice  of  a  central  chemist's 
shop,  where  she  could  feed  a  ghastly  imagination  on  the 
various  recipes  .  .  .  and  while  it  would  have  been  so  much 
healthier  for  her  to  be  living  in  a  recess  of  the  country  ! 

He  muttered  :  "  Diseases  —  drugs  !  " 

Those  were  the  corresponding  two  strokes  of  the  pendu- 
lum which  kept  the  woman  going. 

"And  deadly  spite."  That  was  the  emanation  of  the 
monotonous  horrible  conflict,  for  which,  and  by  which,  the 
woman  lived. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  shop,  he  could  not  but 
think  of  her  through  the  feelings  of  a  man  scorched  by  a 
furnace. 

A  little  further  on,  he  said :  "  Poor  soul ! "  He  con- 
fessed to  himself,  that  latterly  he  had,  he  knew  not  why, 
been  impatient  with  her,  rancorous  in  thought,  as  never 
before.  He  had  hitherto  aimed  at  a  picturesque  tolerance 
of  her  vindictiveness  ;  under  suffering,  both  at  Craye  and 
Creckholt ;  and  he  had  been  really  forgiving.  He  accused 
her  of  dragging  him  down  to  humanity's  lowest. 

But  if  she  did  that,  it  argued  the  possession  of  a  power 
of  a  sort. 

Her  station  in  the  chemist's  shop  he  passed  almost  daily, 
appeared  to  him  as  a  sudden  and  a  terrific  rush  to  the 
front ;  though  it  was  only  a  short  drive  from  the  house  in 
Eegent's  Park ;  but  having  shaken-off  that  house,  he  had 
pushed  it  back  into  mists,  obliterated  it.  The  woman 
certainly  had  a  power. 

He  shot  away  to  the  power  he  knew  of  in  himself ;  his 
capacity  for  winning  men  in  bodies,  the  host  of  them,  when 
it  came  to  an  effort  of  his  energies :  men  and,  individually, 
women.  Individually,  the  women  were  to  be  counted  on  as 
well ;  warm  supporters. 

It  was  the  admission  of  a  doubt  that  he  might  expect 

8 


114  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQUEEORS 

to  enroll  them  collectively.  Eyeing  the  men,  he  felt  his 
command  of  them.  Glancing  at  congregated  women,  he 
had  a  chill.  The  Wives  and  Spinsters  in  ghostly  judicial 
assembly :  that  is,  the  phantom  of  the  offended  collective 
woman :  that  is,  the  regnant  Queen  Idea  issuing  from  our 
concourse  of  civilized  life  to  govern  Society,  and  pronounce 
on  the  orderly,  the  tolerable,  the  legal,  and  banish  the 
rebellious :  these  maintained  an  aspect  of  the  stand  against 
him. 

Did  Nataly  read  the  case :  namely,  that  the  crowned 
collective  woman  is  not  to  be  subdued  ?  And  what  are  we 
to  say  of  the  indefinite  but  forcible  Authority,  when  we  see 
it  upholding  Mrs.  Burman  to  crush  a  woman  like  ISTataly ! 

Victor's  novel  exercises  in  reflection  were  bringing  him 
by  hard  degrees  to  conceive  it  to  be  the  Impalpable  which 
has  prevailing  weight.  Not  many  of  our  conquerors  have 
scored  their  victories  on  the  road  of  that  index :  nor  has 
duration  been  granted  them  to  behold  the  minute  measure 
of  value  left  even  tangible  after  the  dust  of  the  conquest 
subsides.  The  passing  by  a  shop  where  a  broken  old 
woman  might  be  supposed  to  sit  beneath  her  green  fore- 
head-shade —  Venetian-blind  of  a  henbane-visage  !  —  had 
precipitated  him  into  his  first  real  grasp  of  the  abstract 
verity :  and  it  opens  on  to  new  realms,  which  are  a  new 
world  to  the  practical  mind.  But  he  made  no  advance. 
He  stopped  in  a  fever  of  sensibility,  to  contemplate  the 
powerful  formless  vapour  rolling  from  a  source  that  was 
nothing  other  than  yonder  weak  lonely  woman. 

In  other  words,  the  human  nature  of  the  man  was 
dragged  to  the  school  of  its  truancy  by  circumstances,  for 
him  to  learn  the  commonest  of  sums  done  on  a  slate,  in 
regard  to  payment  of  debts  and  the  unrelaxing  grip  of  the 
creditor  on  the  defaulter.  Debtors  are  always  paying: 
like  those  who  are  guilty  of  the  easiest  thing  in  life,  the 
violation  of  Truth,  they  have  made  themselves  bondmen 
to  pay,  if  not  in  substance,  then  in  soul ;  and  the  nipping 
of  the  soul  goes  on  for  as  long  as  the  concrete  burden  is 
undischarged.  You  know  the  Liar;  you  must  have  seen 
him  diminishing,  until  he  has  become  a  face  without  fea- 
tures, withdrawn  to  humanity's  preliminary  sketch  (some 
half-dozen  frayed  threads  of  woeful  outline  on  our  original 


THE  LATEST   OF  ]MES.   BURIVIAN  116 

tapestry-web) ;  and  lie  who  did  the  easiest  of  things,  he  must 
from  such  time  sweat  in  being  the  prodigy  of  inventive 
nimbleness,  up  to  the  day  when  he  propitiates  Truth  by 
telling  it  again.  There  is  a  repentance  that  does  reconsti- 
tute !  It  may  help  to  the  traceing  to  springs  of  a  fable 
whereby  men  have  been  guided  thus  far  out  of  the  wood. 

Victor  would  have  said  truly  that  he  loved  Truth ;  that 
he  paid  every  debt  with  a  scrupulous  exactitude :  money, 
of  course ;  and  prompt  apologies  for  a  short  brush  of  his 
temper.  Nay,  he  had  such  a  conscience  for  the  smallest 
eruptions  of  a  transient,  irritability,  that  the  wish  to  say  a 
friendly  mending  word  to  the  Punctilio  donkey  of  London 
Bridge,  softened  his  retrospective  view  of  the  fall  there, 
more  than  once.  Although  this  man  was  a  presentation  to 
mankind  of  the  force  in  Nature  which  drives  to  unresting 
speed,  which  is  the  vitality  of  the  heart  seen  at  its  beating 
after  a  plucking  of  it  from  the  body,  he  knew  himself  for 
the  reverse  of  lawless ;  he  inclined  altogether  to  good  citi- 
zenship. So  social  a  man  could  not  otherwise  incline.  But 
when  it  came  to  the  examination  of  accounts  between  Mrs. 
Bur  man  and  himself,  spasms  of  physical  revulsion,  loath- 
ings, his  excessive  human  nature,  put  her  out  of  Court.  To 
men,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  speak  the  torments  of 
those  days  of  the  monstrous  alliance.  The  heavens  were 
cognizant.  He  pleaded  his  case  in  their  accustomed  hear- 
ing :  —  a  youngster  tempted  by  wealth,  attracted,  besought, 
snared,  revolted,  &c.  And  Mrs.  Burman,  when  roused  to 
jealousy,  had  shown  it  by  teasing  him  for  a  confession  of 
his  admiration  of  splendid  points  in  the  beautiful  Nataly, 
the  priceless  fair  woman  living  under  their  roof,  a  contrast 
of  very  life  with  the  corpse  and  shroud ;  and  she  seen  by 
him  daily,  singing  with  him,  her  breath  about  him,  her 
voice  incessantly  upon  every  chord  of  his  being! 

He  pleaded  successfully.  But  the  silence  following  the 
verdict  was  heavy ;  the  silence  contained  an  unheard  thunder. 
It  was  the  sound,  as  when  out  of  Court  the  public  is  dis- 
satisfied with  a  verdict.  Are  we  expected  to  commit  a  social 
outrage  in  exposing  our  whole  case  to  the  public  ?  —  Imagine 
it  for  a  moment  as  done.  Men  are  ours  at  a  word  —  or  at 
least  a  word  of  invitation.  Women  we  woo  :  fluent  smooth 
versions  of  our  tortures,  mixed  with  permissible  courtship, 


116  ONE  OF   OUE  CONQUERORS 

win  the  individual  woman.  And  that  unreasoning  collective 
woman,  icy,  deadly,  condemns  the  poor  racked  wretch  who 
so  much  as  remembers  them  !     She  is  the  enemy  of  Nature. 

—  Tell  us  how  ?  She  is  the  slave  of  existing  conventions.  — 
And  from  what  cause  ?  She  is  the  artificial  production  of 
a  state  that  exalts  her  so  long  as  she  sacrifices  daily  and 
hourly  to  the  artificial. 

Therefore  she  sides  with  Mrs.  Burman  —  the  foe  of 
Nature  :  who,  with  her  arts  and  gold  lures,  has  now  posses- 
sion of  the  Law  (the  brass  idol  worshipped  by  the  collec- 
tive) to  drive  Nature  into  desolation. 

He  placed  himself  to  the  right  of  Mrs.  Burman,  for  the 
world  to  behold  the  couple :  and  he  lent  the  world  a  sigh 
of  disgust. 

jT  What  he  could  not  do,  as  in  other  matters  he  did,  was  to 
/rise  above  the  situation,  in  a  splendid  survey  and  rapid  view 
/of  the  means  of  reversing  it.  He  was  too  social  to  be  a 
I  captain  of  the  socially  insurgent ;  imagination  expired. 
^~_But  having  a  courageous  Nataly  to  second  him!  —  how 
then?  It  was  the  succour  needed.  Then  he  would  have 
been  ready  to  teach  the  world  that  Nature  —  honest  Nature 

—  is  more  to  be  prized  than  Convention :  a  new  ^ra  might 
begin. 

The  thought  was  tonic  for  an  instant  and  illuminated  him 
springingly.  It  sank,  excused  for  the  flaccidity  by  Nataly's 
want  of  common  adventurous  daring.  She  had  not  taken 
to  Lakelands ;  she  was  purchasing  furniture  from  a  flowing 
purse  with  a  heavy  heart  — unfeminine,  one  might  say ;  she 
preferred  to  live  obscurely ;  she  did  not,  one  had  to  think  — 
but  it  was  unjust :  and  yet  the  accusation,  that  she  did  not 
cheerfully  make  a  strain  and  spurt  on  behalf  of  her  child, 
pressed  to  be  repeated. 

These  short  glimpses  at  reflection  in  Victor  were  like  the 
verberant  twang  of  a  musical  instrument  that  has  had  a 
smart  blow,  and  wails  away  independent  of  the  playei-^s 
cunning  hand.  He  would  have  said,  that  he  was  more  his 
natural  self  when  the  cunning  hand  played  on  him,  to  make 
him  praise  and  uplift  his  beloved :  mightily  would  it  have 
astonished  him  to  contemplate  with  assured  perception  in 
his  own  person  the  Nature  he  invoked.  But  men  invoking 
Nature,  do  not  find  in  her  the  Holy  Mother  she  in  such  case 


a?HE  LATEST  OF  MRS.   BTJET^IAK  117 

becomes  to  her  daughters,  whom  she  so  persecutes.  Mea 
call  on  her  for  their  defence,  as  a  favourable  witness :  she 
is  a  note  of  their  rhetoric.  They  are  not  bettered  by 
her  sustainment :  they  have  not,  as  women  may  have, 
her  enaemic  aid  at  a  trying  hour.  It  is  not  an  effort  at 
epigram  to  say,  that  whom  she  scourges  most  she  most 
supports. 

An  Opera-placard  drew  his  next  remark  to  Fenellan. 

"  How  Wagner  seems  to  have  stricken  the  Italians  !  Well, 
now,  the  Germans  have  their  emperor  to  head  their  armies, 
and  I  say  that  the  German  emperor  has  done  less  for  their 
lasting  fame  and  influence  than  Wagner  has  done.  He  has 
affected  the  French  too ;  I  trace  him  in  Gounod's  Romeo 
at  Juliette  —  and  we  don't  gain  by  it;  we  have  a  poor 
remuneration  for  the  melody  gone;  think  of  the  little 
shepherd's  pipeing  in  Mlreille  ;  and  there  's  another  in  Sapho 
—  delicious.  I  held  out  against  Wagner  as  long  as  I  could. 
The  Italians  don't  much  more  than  Wagnerize  in  exchange 
for  the  loss  of  melody.  They  would  be  wiser  in  going  back 
to  Pergolese,  Campagnole.  The  Mefistofile  was  good  —  of 
the  school  of  the  foreign  master.  Aida  ^nd  Otello,  no.  I 
confess  to  a  weakness  for  the  old  barley-sugar  of  Bellini 
or  a  Donizetti-Serenade.  Are  n't  you  seduced  by  cadences  ? 
Never  mind  Wagner's  tap  of  his  psedagogue's  b^ton  —  a 
cadence  catches  me  still.  Early  taste  for  barley-sugar,  per- 
haps !  There  's  a  march  in  Verdi's  Attila  and  /  Lombardi, 
I  declare  I  'm  in  military  step  when  I  hear  them,  as  in  the 
old  days,  after  leaving  the  Opera.  Fredi  takes  little  Mab 
Mountney  to  her  first  Opera  to-night.  Enough  to  make  us 
old  ones  envious  !  You  remember  your  first  Opera,  Fenel- 
lan ?  Sonnambula,  with  me.  I  tell  you,  it  would  task  the 
highest  poetry  —  say,  require,  if  you  like  —  showing  all 
that 's  noblest,  splendidest,  in  a  young  man,  to  describe  its 
effect  on  me.  I  was  dreaming  of  my  box  at  the  Opera  for 
a  year  after.  The  Huguenots  to-night.  Not  the  best  suited 
for  little  Mabsy ;  but  she  '11  catch  at  the  Rataplan.  Capital 
Opera ;  we  used  to  think  it  the  best,  before  we  had  Tann- 
haiiser  and  Lohengrin  and  the  Meistersingery 

Victor  hinted  notes  of  the  Conspiration  Scene  closing  the 
Third  Act  of  the  Huguenots.  That  sombre  Chorus  brought 
Mrs.  Burmau  before  him.    He  drummed  the  BataplaUy  which 


/ 


118  ONE  OF  OtTR  CONQUERORS 

sent  lier  flying.  The  return  of  a  lively  disposition  for  din- 
ner and  music  completed  his  emancipation  from  the  yoke  of 
the  baleful  creature  sitting  half  her  days  in  the  chemist^s 
shop ;  save  that  a  thought  of  drugs  brought  the  smell,  and 
the  smell  the  picture  ;  she  threatened  to  be  an  apparition  at 
any  amount  pervading  him  through  his  nostrils.  He  spoke 
to  Fenellan  of  hunger  for  dinner,  a  need  for  it ;  singular  in 
one  whose  appetite  ran  to  the  stroke  of  the  hour  abreast 
with  Armandine's  kitchen-clock.  Fenellan  proposed  a  glass 
of  sherry  and  bitters  at  his  Club  over  the  way.  He  had 
forgotten  the  shower  of  black  balls  (attributable  to  the  con- 
jurations of  old  Ate)  on  a  certain  past  day.  Without  word 
of  refusal,  Victor  entered  a  wine-merchant's  office,  where  he 
was  unknown,  and  stating  his  wish  for  bitters  and  dry 
sherry,  presently  received  the  glass,  drank,  nodded  to  the 
administering  clerk,  named  the  person  whom  he  had  obliged 
and  refreshed,  and  passed  out,  remarking  to  Fenellan: 
"  Colney  on  Clubs  !  he 's  right ;  they  're  the  mediaeval  in 
modern  times,  our  Baron's  castles,  minus  the  Baron ;  dead 
against  public  life  and  social  duties.  Business  excuses  my 
City  Clubs;  but  I  shall  take  my  name  off  my  Club  up 
West." 

*^  More  like  monasteries,  with  a  Committee  for  Abbot,  and 
Whist  for  the  services,''  Fenellan  said.  '*0r  tabernacles 
for  the  Chosen,  and  Grangousier  playing  Divinity  behind 
the  veil.     Well,  they  're  social." 

"  Sectionally  social,  means  anything  but  social,  my  friend. 
However  —  and  the  monastery  had  a  bell  for  the  wanderer ! 
Say,  I  'm  penniless  or  poundless,  up  and  down  this  walled 
desert  of  a  street,  I  feel,  I  must  feel,  these  palaces  —  if 
we  're  Christian,  not  Jews :  not  that  the  Jews  are  unchari- 
table ;  they  set  an  example,  in  fact.  ..." 

He  rambled,  amusingly  to  the  complacent  hearing  of 
Fenellan,  who  thought  of  his  pursuit  of  wealth  and  grand 
expenditure. 

Victor  talked  as  a  man  having  his  mind  at  leaps  beyond 
the  subject.  He  was  nearing  to  the  Idea  he  had  seized  and 
lost  on  London  Bridge. 

The  desire  for  some  good  news  wherewith  to  inspirit 
Nataly,  withdrew  him  from  his  ineffectual  chase.  He  had 
nought  to  deliver ;  on  the  contrary,  a  meditation  concerning 


DISCLOSES  A  STAGE  OK  THE  DEIVE  TO  PAEIS     119 

her  comfort  pledged  Mm  to  concealment :  whicli  was  the  no 
step,  or  passive  state,  most  abhorrent  to  him. 

He  snatched  at  the  name  of  Themison. 

With  Dr.  Themison  fast  in  his  grasp,  there  was  a  report 
of  progress  to  be  made  to  Nataly ;  and  not  at  all  an  empty- 
report. 

Themison,  then :  he  leaned  on  Themison.  The  woman's 
doctor  should  have  an  influence  approaching  to  authority 
with  her. 

Land-values  in  the  developing  Colonies,  formed  his  theme 
of  discourse  to  Eenellan  :  let  Banks  beware. 

Fenellan  saw  him  shudder  and  rub  the  back  of  his  head. 
"  Feel  the  wind  ?  "  he  said. 

Victor  answered  him  with  that  humane  thrill  of  the  deep 
tones,  which  at  times  he  had :  ^-  No :  don't  be  alarmed ;  I 
feel  the  devil.  If  one  has  wealth  and  a  desperate  wish,  he 
will  speak.  All  he  does,  is  to  make  me  more  charitable  to 
those  who  give  way  to  him.     I  believe  in  a  devil." 

"Horns  and  tail?" 

"Bait  and  hook." 

"  I  have  n't  wealth,  and  I  wish  only  for  dinner,"  Fenellan 
said. 

"  You  know  that  Armandine  is  never  two  minutes  late. 
By  the  way,  you  have  n't  wealth  —  you  have  me." 

"  And  I  thank  God  for  you !  "  said  Fenellan,  acutely 
reminiscent  of  liis  having  marked  the  spiritual  adviser  of 
Mrs.  Burman,  the  Eev.  Groseman  Butter  more,  as  a  man 
who  might  be  useful  to  his  friend. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

DISCLOSES   A   STAGE   ON  THE   DRIVE  TO   PARIS 

A  FORTNIGHT  later,  an  extremely  disconcerting  circum- 
stance occurred :  Armandine  was  ten  minutes  behind  the 
hour  with  her  dinner.  But  the  surprise  and  stupefaction 
expressed  by  Victor,  after  glances  at  his  watch,  were  not 
so  profound  as  Fenellan's,  on  finding  himself  exchangeing 


120  ONE  OF  OTTR  CONQUEEORS 

the  bow  with  a  gentleman  bearing  the  name  of  Br.  Themi^ 
son.  His  friend's  rapidity  in  pushing  the  combinations 
he  conceived,  was  known :  Fenellan's  wonder  was  not 
so  much  that  Victor  had  astonished  him  again,  as  that  he 
should  be  called  upon  again  to  wonder  at  his  astonishment. 
He  did;  and  he  observed  the  doctor  and  Victor  and  Nataly : 
aided  by  dropping  remarks.  Before  the  evening  was 
over,  he  gathered  enough  of  the  facts,  and  had  to  speculate 
only  on  the  designs.  Dr.  Themison  had  received  a  visit 
from  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Victor  Eadnor  concerning  her 
state  of  health.  At  an  interview  with  the  lady,  laughter 
greeted  him ;  he  was  confused  by  her  denial  of  the  impu- 
tation of  a  single  ailment:  but  she,  to  recompose  him, 
let  it  be  understood,  that  she  was  anxious  about  her  hus- 
band's condition,  he  being  certainly  overworked;  and  the 
husband's  visit  passed  for  a  device  on  the  part  of  the  wife. 
She  admitted  a  willingness  to  try  a  change  of  air,  if  it  was 
deemed  good  for  her  husband.  Change  of  air  was  pre- 
scribed to  each  for  both.  "Why  not  drive  to  Paris  ?"  the 
doctor  said,  and  Victor  was  taken  with  the  phrase. 

He  told  Eenellan  at  night  that  Mrs.  Burman,  he  had 
heard,  was  by  the  sea,  on  the  South  coast.  Which  of  her 
maladies  might  be  in  the  ascendant,  he  did  not  know. 
He  knew  little.  He  fancied  that  Dr.  Themison  was  un- 
suspicious of  the  existence  of  a  relationship  between  him 
and  Mrs.  Burman;  and  Fenellan  opined,  that  there  had 
been  no  communication  upon  private  affairs.  What,  then, 
was  the  object  in  going  to  Dr.  Themison?  He  treated  her 
body  merely;  whereas  the  Eev.  Groseman  Buttermore 
could  be  expected  to  impose  upon  her  conduct.  Fenellan 
appreciated  his  own  discernment  of  the  superior  uses  to 
which  a  spiritual  adviser  may  be  put,  and  he  too  agreeably 
flattered  himself  for  the  corrective  reflection  to  ensue,  that 
he  had  not  done  anything.  It  disposed  him  to  think  a 
happy  passivity  more  sagacious  than  a  restless  activity. 
We  should  let  Fortune  perform  her  part  at  the  wheel  in 
working  out  her  ends,  should  we  not  ?  —  for,  ten  to  one, 
nine  times  out  of  ten  we  are  thwarting  her  if  we  stretch 
out  a  hand.  And  with  the  range  of  enjoyments  possessed 
by  Victor,  why  this  unceasing  restlessness  ?  Why,  when 
we  are  not  near  drowning,  catch  at  apparent  straws,  which 


DISCLOSES  A  STAGE  ON  THE  DElVE  TO  PABIS     121 

may  be  instruments  having  sharp  edges  ?  Themison,  as 
Mrs.  Burman's  medical  man,  might  tell  the  lady  tales  that 
would  irritate  her  bag  of  venom. 

Rarely  though  Fenellan  was  the  critic  on  his  friend,  the 
shadow  cast  over  his  negligent  hedonism  by  Victor's 
boiling  pressure,  drove  him  into  the  seat  of  judgement. 
As  a  consequence,  he  was  rather  a  dull  table-guest  in  the 
presence  of  Dr.  Themison,  whom  their  host  had  pricked 
to  anticipate  high  entertainment  from  him.  He  did  noth- 
ing to  bridge  the  crevasse  and  warm  the  glacier  air  at  table 
when  the  doctor,  anecdotal  intentionally  to  draw  him  out, 
related  a  decorous  but  pungent  story  of  one  fair  member  of 
a  sweet  new  sisterhood  in  agitation  against  the  fixed  estab- 
lishment of  our  chain-mail  marriage-tie.  An  anecdote  of 
immediate  diversion  was  wanted,  expected:  and  Fenellan 
sat  stupidly  speculating  upon  whether  the  doctor  knew 
of  a  cupboard  locked.  So  that  Dr.  Themison  was  carried 
on  by  Lady  Grace  Halley's  humorous  enthusiasm  for  the 
subject  to  dilate  and  discuss  and  specify,  all  in  the  irony 
of  a  judicial  leaning  to  the  side  of  the  single-minded 
social  adventurers,  under  an  assumed  accord  with  his 
audience;  concluding:  "So  there  's  an  end  of  Divorce." 

"By  the  trick  of  multiplication,"  Fenellan,  now  reas- 
sured, was  content  to  say.  And  that  did  not  extinguish 
the  cracker  of  a  theme ;  handled  very  carefully,  as  a  thing 
of  fire,  it  need  scarce  be  remarked,  three  young  women 
being  present. 

Nataly  had  eyes  on  her  girl,  and  was  pleased  at  an 
alertness  shown  by  Mr.  Sowerby  to  second  her  by  cross- 
ing the  dialogue.  As  regarded  her  personal  feelings,  she 
was  hardened,  so  long  as  the  curtains  were  about  her  to 
keep  the  world  from  bending  black  brows  of  inquisition 
upon  one  of  its  culprits.  But  her  anxiety  was  vigilant 
to  guard  her  girl  from  an  infusion  of  any  of  the  dread 
facts  of  life  not  coming  through  the  mother's  lips:  and 
she  was  a  woman  having  the  feminine  mind's  pudency  in 
that  direction,  which  does  not  consent  to  the  revealing  of 
much.  Here  was  the  mother's  dilemma:  her  girl — • 
Victor's  girl,  as  she  had  to  think  in  this  instance,  —  the 
most  cloudless  of  the  young  women  of  earth,  seemed,  and 
might  be  figured  as  really,  at  the  falling  of  a  crumb  off 


1^2  OKE  OF  OTJE  CONQUEEOES 

the  table  of  knowledge,  taken  by  tbe  brain  to  shoot  up  to 
terrific  heights  of  surveyal;  and  there  she  rocked;  and 
only  her  youthful  healthiness  brought  her  down  to  grass 
and  flowers.  She  had  once  or  twice  received  the  electrical 
stimulus,  to  feel  and  be  as  lightning,  from  a  seizure  of 
facts  in  infinitesimal  doses,  guesses  caught  off  maternal 
evasions  or  the  circuitous  explanation  of  matters  touching 
sex  in  here  and  there  a  newspaper,  harder  to  repress  com- 
pletely than  sewer-gas  in  great  cities :  and  her  mother  had 
seen,  with  an  apprehensive  pang  of  anguish,  how  wither- 
ingly  the  scared  young  intelligence  of  the  innocent  crea- 
ture shocked  her  sensibility.  She  foresaw  the  need  to 
such  a  flameful  soul,  as  bride,  wife,  woman  across  the 
world,  of  the  very  princeliest  of  men  in  gifts  of  strength, 
for  her  sustainer  and  guide.  And  the  provident  mother 
knew  this  peerless  gentleman:  but  he  had  his  wife. 

Delusions  and  the  pain  of  the  disillusioning  were  to  be 
feared  for  the  imaginative  Nesta;  though  not  so  much  as 
that  on  some  future  day  of  a  perchance  miserable  yoke- 
mating —  a  subjection  or  an  entanglement  —  the  nobler 
passions  might  be  summoned  to  rise  for  freedom,  and 
strike  a  line  to  make  their  logically  estimable  sequence 
from  a  source  not  honourable  before  the  public.  Con- 
stantly it  had  to  be  thought,  that  the  girl  was  her  father's 
child. 

At  present  she  had  no  passions;  and  her  bent  to  the 
happiness  she  could  so  richly  give,  had  drawn  her  sailing 
smoothly  over  the  harbour-bar  of  maidenhood;  where 
many  of  her  sisters  are  disconcerted  to  the  loss  of  sim- 
plicity. If  Nataly  with  her  sleepless  watchfulness  and 
forecasts  partook  of  the  French  mother,  Nesta's  Arcadian 
independence  likened  her  somewhat  in  manner  to  the 
Transatlantic  version  of  the  English  girl.  Her  high 
physical  animation  and  the  burden  of  themes  it  plucked 
for  delivery  carried  her  flowing  over  impediments  of 
virginal  self-consciousness,  to  set  her  at  her  ease  in  the 
talk  with  men;  she  had  not  gone  through  the  various 
Nursery  exercises  in  dissimulation ;  she  had  no  appearance 
of  praying  forgiveness  of  men  for  the  original  sin  of  being 
woman ;  and  no  tricks  of  lips  or  lids,  or  traitor  scarlet  on 
the  cheeks,  or  assumptions  of  the  frigid  mask,  or  indi- 


DISCLOSES  A  STAGE  ON  THE  DRIVE  TO  PAEIS      123 

cated  reserve-cajoleries.  Neither  ignorantly  nor  advisedly 
did  she  play  on  these  or  other  bewitching  strings  of  her 
sex,  after  the  fashion  of  the  stamped  innocents,  who  are 
the  boast  of  Englishmen  and  matrons,  and  thrill  societies 
with  their  winsome  ingenuousness;  and  who  sometimes 
when  unguarded  meet  an  artful  serenader,  that  is  a  cloaked 
bandit,  and  is  provoked  by  their  performances,  and  knows 
anthropologically  the  nature  behind  the  devious  show;  a 
sciential  rascal ;  as  little  to  be  excluded  from  our  modern 
circles  as  Eve's  own  old  deuce  from  Eden's  garden :  where- 
upon, opportunity  inviting,  both  the  fool  and  the  cunning, 
the  pure  donkey  princess  of  insular  eulogy,  and  the  sham 
one,  are  in  a  perilous  pass. 

Damsels  of  the  swiftness  of  mind  of  Nesta  cannot  be 
ignorant  utterly  amid  a  world  where  the  hints  are  hourly 
scattering  seed  of  the  inklings;  when  vileness  is  not  at 
work  up  and  down  our  thoroughfares,  proclaiming  its 
existence  with  tableau  and  trumpet.  Nataly  encountered 
her  girl's  questions,  much  as  one  seeks  to  quiet  an  enemy. 
The  questions  had  soon  ceased.  Excepting  repulsive  and 
rejected  details,  there  is  little  to  be  learnt  when  a  little  is 
known:  in  populous  communities,  density  only  will  keep 
the  little  out.  Only  stupidity  will  suppose  that  it  can  be 
done  for  the  livelier  young.  English  mothers  forethought- 
ful for  their  girls,  have  to  take  choice  of  how  to  do  battle 
with  a  rough-and-tumble  Old  England,  that  lumbers  bump- 
ing along,  craving  the  precious  things,  which  can  be  had 
but  in  semblance  under  the  conditions  allowed  by  laziness 
to  subsist,  and  so  curst  of  its  shifty  inconsequence  as  to 
worship  in  the  concrete  an  hypocrisy  it  abhors  in  the 
abstract.  Nataly  could  smuggle  or  confiscate  here  and 
there  a  newspaper;  she  could  not  interdict  or  withhold 
every  one  of  them,  from  a  girl  ardent  to  be  in  the  race  on 
all  topics  of  popular  interest:  and  the  newspapers  are 
occasionally  naked  savages;  the  streets  are  imperfectly 
garmented  even  by  day;  and  we  have  our  stumbling  social 
anecdotist,  our  spout-mouthed  young  man,  our  eminently 
silly  woman;  our  slippery  one;  our  slimy  one,  the  Eahab 
of  Society ;  not  to  speak  of  Mary  the  maid  and  the  footman 
William.  A  vigilant  mother  has  to  contend  with  these 
and  the  like  in  an  increasing  degree.     How  best  ? 


124  ONE   OF  OUB  COKQTJEKOES 

There  is  a  method :  one  that  Colney  Durance  advocated. 
The  girl's  intelligence  and  sweet  blood  invited  a  trial  of  it. 
Since,  as  he  argued,  we  cannot  keep  the  poisonous  matter 
out,  mothers  should  prepare  and  strengthen  young  women 
for  the  encounter  with  it,  by  lifting  the  veil,  baring  the 
world,  giving  them  knowledge  to  arm  them  for  the  fight 
they  have  to  sustain;  and  thereby  preserve  them  further 
from  the  spiritual  collapse  which  follows  the  nursing  of 
a  false  ideal  of  our  life  in  youth :  —  this  being,  Colney 
said,  the  prominent  feminine  disease  of  the  time,  common 
to  all  our  women;  that  is,  all  having  leisure  to  shine  in 
the  sun  or  wave  in  the  wind  as  flowers  of  the  garden. 

Whatever  there  was  of  wisdom  in  his  view,  he  spoilt  it 
for  English  hearing,  by  making  use  of  his  dry  compressed 
sentences.  Besides  he  was  a  bachelor;  therefore  but  a 
theorist.  And  his  illustrations  of  his  theory  were  gro- 
tesque ;  meditation  on  them  extracted  a  corrosive  acid  to 
consume,  in  horrid  derision,  the  sex,  the  nation,  the  race 
of  man.  The  satirist  too  devotedly  loves  his  lash  to  be  a 
persuasive  teacher.  Nataly  had  excuses  to  cover  her 
reasons  for  not  listening  to  him. 

One  reason  was,  as  she  discerned  through  her  confusion 
at  the  thought,  that  the  day  drew  near  for  her  speaking 
fully  to  Nesta;  when,  between  what  she  then  said  and 
what  she  said  now,  a  cruel  contrast  might  strike  the  girl : 
and  in  toneing  revelations  now,  to  be  more  consonant  with 
them  then ;  —  in  softening  and  shading  the  edges  of  social 
misconduct,  it  seemed  painfully  possible  to  be  sowing  in 
the  girPs  mind  something  like  the  reverse  of  moral  pre- 
cepts, even  to  smoothing  the  way  to  a  rebelliousness  partly 
or  wholly  similar  to  her  own.  But  Nataly's  chief  and  her 
appeasing  reason  for  pursuing  the  conventional  system 
with  this  exceptional  young  creature,  referred  to  the 
sentiments  on  that  subject  of  the  kind  of  young  man  whom 
a  mother  elects  from  among  those  present  and  eligible,  as 
perhaps  next  to  worthy  to  wed  the  girl,  by  virtue  of 
good  promise  in  the  moral  department.  She  had  Mr. 
Dudley  Sowerby  under  view;  far  from  the  man  of  her 
choice:  and  still  the  practise  of  decorum,  discretion,  a 
pardonable  fastidiousness,  appears,  if  women  may  make 
any  forecast  of  the  behaviour  of  young  men  or  may  trust 


DISCLOSES   A  STAGE  ON  THE  DRIVE  TO  PARIS      125 

the  faces  they  see,  to  promise  a  future  stability  in  the 
husband.  Assuredly  a  Dudley  Sowerby  would  be  im- 
mensely startled  to  find  in  his  bride  a  young  woman  more 
than  babily  aware  of  the  existence  of  one  particular  form 
of  naughtiness  on  earth. 

Victor  was  of  no  help:  he  had  not  an  idea  upon  the 
right  education  of  the  young  of  the  sex.  Kepression  and 
mystery,  he  considered  wholesome  for  girls;  and  he  con- 
sidered the  enlightening  of  them  —  to  some  extent  —  a  pru- 
dential measure  for  their  defence;  and  premature  instruc- 
tion is  a  fire-water  to  their  wild-in-woods  understanding; 
and  histrionic  innocence  is  no  doubt  the  bloom  on  corrup- 
tion ;  also  the  facts  of  current  human  life,  in  the  crude  of 
the  reports  or  the  cooked  of  the  sermon  in  the  newspapers, 
are  a  noxious  diet  for  our  daughters ;  whom  nevertheless 
we  cannot  hope  to  be  feeding  always  on  milk :  and  there 
is  a  time  when  their  adorable  pretty  ignorance,  if  credibly 
it  exists  out  of  noodledom,  is  harmful :  —  but  how  beauti- 
ful the  shining  simplicity  of  our  dear  young  English  girls ! 
—  He  was  one  of  the  many  men  to  whose  minds  women 
come  in  pictures  and  are  accepted  much  as  they  paint 
themselves.  Like  his  numerous  fellows,  too,  he  required 
a  conflict  with  them,  and  a  worsting  at  it,  to  be  taught, 
that  they  are  not  the  mere  live  stock  we  scheme  to  dispose 
of  for  their  good:  — unless  Love  should  interpose,  he  would 
have  exclaimed.  He  broke  from  his  fellows  in  his  holy 
horror  of  a  father's  running  counter  to  love.  Nesta  had 
only  to  say,  that  she  loved  another,  for  Dudley  Sowerby 
to  be  withdrawn  into  the  background  of  aspirants.  But 
love  was  unknown  to  the  girl. 

Outwardly,  the  plan  of  the  Drive  to  Paris  had  the  look 
of  Victor^s  traditional  hospitality.  Nataly  smiled  at  her 
incorrigibly  lagging  intelligence  of  him,  on  hearing  that 
he  had  invited  a  company:  "Lady  Grace,  for  gaiety; 
Peridon  and  Catkin,  fiddles ;  Dudley  Sowerby  and  myself, 
flutes;  Barmby,  intonation;  in  all,  nine  of  us;  and  by 
the  dear  old  Normandy  route,  for  the  sake  of  the  voyage, 
as  in  old  times;  towers  of  Dieppe  in  the  morning-light; 
and  the  lovely  road  to  the  capital!  Just  three  days  in 
Paris,  and  home  by  any  of  the  other  routes.  It 's  the  drive 
we  want.     Boredom  in  wet  weather,  we  defy ;  we  have  our 


126  ONE  OF  OUB  CONQUEROES 

Concert  —  an  hour  at  night  and  we  're  sure  of  sleep."  It 
had  a  sweet  simple  air,  befitting  him ;  as  when  in  bygone 
days  they  travelled  with  the  joy  of  children.  For  trav- 
elling shook  Nataly  out  of  her  troubles  and  gave  her  some- 
thing of  the  child's  inheritance  of  the  wisdom  of  life  —  the 
living  ever  so  little  ahead  of  ourselves  ;  about  as  far  as  the 
fox  in  view  of  the  hunt.  That  is  the  soul  of  us  out  for 
novelty,  devouring  as  it  runs,  an  endless  feast;  and  the 
body  is  eagerly  after  it,  recording  the  pleasures,  a  daily 
chase.  Remembrance  of  them  is  almost  a  renewal,  anti- 
cipation a  revival.  She  enraptured  Victor  with  glimpses 
of  the  domestic  fun  she  had  ceased  to  show  sign  of  since 
the  revelation  of  Lakelands.  Her  only  regret  was  on 
account  of  the  exclusion  of  Colney  Durance  from  the 
party,  because  of  happy  memories  associating  him  with 
the  Seine-land,  and  also  that  his  bilious  criticism  of  his 
countrymen  was  moderated  by  a  trip  to  the  Continent. 
Fenellan  reported  Colney  to  be  "  busy  in  the  act  of  distill- 
ing one  of  his  Prussic  acid  essays."  Fenellan  would  have 
jumped  to  go.  He  informed  Victor,  as  a  probe,  that  the 
business  of  the  Life  Insurance  was  at  periods  "fearfully 
necrological."  •  Inexplicably,  he  was  not  invited.  Did  it 
mean,  that  he  was  growing  dull  ?  He  looked  inside  instead 
of  out,  and  lost  the  clue. 

His  behaviour  on  the  evening  of  the  departure  showed 
plainly  what  would  have  befallen  Mr.  Sowerby  on  the 
expedition,  had  not  he  as  well  as  Colney  been  excluded. 
Two  carriages  and  a  cab  conveyed  the  excursionists,  as 
they  merrily  called  themselves,  to  the  terminus.  They 
were  Victor's  guests;  they  had  no  trouble,  no  expense, 
none  of  the  nipper  reckonings  which  dog  our  pleasures ;  — 
the  state  of  pure  bliss.  Fenellan's  enviousness  drove  him 
at  the  Rev.  Mr.  Barmby  until  the  latter  jumped  to  the 
seat  beside  Nesta  in  her  carriage.  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles 
and  Mr.  Sowerby  facing  them.  Lady  Grace  Halley,  in  the 
carriage  behind,  heard  Nesta's  laugh ;  which  Mr.  Barmby 
had  thought  vacuous,  beseeming  little  girls,  that  laugh  at 
nothings.     She  questioned  Fenellan. 

"Oh,"  said  he,  "I  merely  mentioned  that  the  Rev.  gen- 
tleman carries  his  musical  instrujnent  at  the  bottom  of  his 
trunk.  "^ 


DISCLOSES  A  STAGE  ON  THE  DEIYE  TO  PAEIS      127 

She  smiled :  "  And  who  are  in  the  cab  ?  " 

"  Your  fiddles  are  in  the  cab,  in  charge  of  Peridon  and 
Catkin.  Those  two  would  have  writhed  like  head  and  tail 
of  a  worm,  at  a  division  on  the  way  to  the  station.  Point 
a  finger  at  Peridon,  you  run  Catkin  through  the  body. 
They  're  a  fabulous  couple." 

Victor  cut  him  short.  "I  deny  that  those  two  are 
absurd." 

"And  Catkin's  toothache  is  a  galvanic  battery  upon 
Peridon." 

Nataly  strongly  denied  it.  Peridon  and  Catkin  per- 
tained to  their  genial  picture  of  the  dear  sweet  nest  in 
life;  a  dale  never  traversed  by  the  withering  breath  they 
dreaded. 

Fenellan  then,  to  prove  that  he  could  be  as  bad  in  his 
way  as  Colney,  fell  to  work  on  the  absent  Miss  Priscilla 
Graves  and  Mr.  Pempton,  with  a  pitchfork's  exaltation 
of  the  sacred  attachment  of  the  divergently  meritorious 
couple,  and  a  melancholy  reference  to  implacable  obstacles 
in  the  principles  of  each.  The  pair  were  offending  the 
amatory  corner  in  the  generous  good  sense  of  Nataly  and 
Victor;  they  were  not  to  be  hotly  protected,  though  they 
were  well  enough  liked  for  their  qualities,  except  by  Lady 
Grace,  who  revelled  in  the  horrifying  and  scandalizing  of 
Miss  Graves.  Such  a  specimen  of  the  Puritan  middle 
English  as  Priscilla  Graves,  was  eastwind  on  her  skin, 
nausea  to  her  gorge.  She  wondered  at  having  drifted  into 
the  neighbourhood  of  a  person  resembling  in  her  repellent 
formal  chill  virtuousness  a  windy  belfry  tower,  down 
among  those  districts  of  suburban  London  or  appalling 
provincial  towns  passed  now  and  then  with  a  shudder, 
where  the  funereal  square  bricks -up  the  Church,  that 
Arctic  hen-mother  sits  on  the  square,  and  the  moving  dead 
are  summoned  to  their  round  of  penitential  exercise  by  a 
monosyllabic  tribulation-bell.  Fenellan's  graphic  sketch 
of  the  teetotaller  woman  seeing  her  admirer  pursued  by 
Eumenides  flagons  —  abominations  of  emptiness  —  to  the 
banks  of  the  black  river  of  suicides,  where  the  one  most 
wretched  light  is  Inebriation's  nose;  and  of  the  vegetarian 
violoncello's  horror  at  his  vision  of  the  long  procession  of 
the  flocks  and  herds  into  his  lady's  melodious  Ark  of  3, 


128  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

mouth,  excited  and  delighted ^  her  antipathy.  She  was 
amused  to  transports  at  the  station,  on  hearing  Mr.  Barmby, 
in  a  voice  all  ophicleide,  remark:  "No,  I  carry  no  instru- 
ment." The  habitation  of  it  at  the  bottom  of  his  trunk, 
was  not  forgotten  when  it  sounded. 

Eeclining  in  warmth  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel  at  night, 
she  said,  just  under  Victor's  ear :  "  Where  are  those  two  ?  " 

"Bid  me  select  the  couple,"  said  he. 

She  rejoined:  "Silly  man j"  and  sleepily  gave  him  her 
hand  for  good-night,  and  so  paralyzed  his  arm,  that  he 
had  to  cover  the  continued  junction  by  saying  more  than 
he  intended :  "  If  they  come  to  an  understanding ! " 

"Plain  enough  on  one  side." 

"You  think  it  suitable  ?" 

"Perfection;  and  well-planned  to  let  them  discover  it." 

"  This  is  really  my  favourite  route ;  I  love  the  saltwater 
and  the  night  on  deck." 

"Goon." 

"How?" 

"Number  your  loves.     It  would  tax  your  arithmetic." 

"I  can  hate." 

"Kotme?" 

Positively  the  contrary,  an  impulsive  squeeze  of  fingers 
declared  it;  and  they  broke  the  link,  neither  of  them  sen- 
sibly hurt;  though  a  leaf  or  two  of  the  ingenuities,  which 
were  her  thoughts,  turned  over  in  the  phantasies  of  the 
lady ;  and  the  gentleman  was  taught  to  feel  that  a  never  so 
slightly  lengthened  compression  of  the  hand  female  shoots 
within  us  both  straight  and  far  and  round  the  corners. 
There  you  have  Nature,  if  you  want  her  naked  in  her  ele- 
ments ,  for  a  text.  He  loved  his  Nataly  truly,  even  fer- 
vently, after  the  twenty  years  of  union;  he  looked  about 
at  no  other  woman;  it  happened  only  that  the  touch  of 
one,  the  chance  warm  touch,  put  to  motion  the  blind  forces 
of  our  mother  so  remarkably  surcharging  him.  But  it  was 
without  kindling.  The  lady,  the  much  cooler  person,  did 
nurse  a  bit  of  flame.  She  had  a  whimsical  liking  for  the 
man  who  enjoyed  simple  things  when  commanding  the 
luxuries;  and  it  became  a  fascination,  by  extreme  con- 
trast, at  the  reminder  of  his  adventurous  enterprises  in 
progress  while  he  could  so  childishly  enjoy.     Women  who 


DISCLOSES  A  STAGE  ON  THE  DRIVE  TO  PARIS      129 

dance  with  tlie  warrior-winner  of  battles,  and  hear  him 
talk  his  ball-room  trifles  to  amuse,  have  similarly  a  smell 
of  gunpowder  to  intoxicate  them. 

For  him,  a  turn  on  the  deck  brought  him  into  new  skies. 
Nataly  lay  in  the  cabin.  She  used  to  be  where  Lady  Grace 
was  lying.  A  sort  of  pleadable,  transparent,  harmless 
hallucination  of  the  renewal  of  old  service  induced  him  to 
refresh  and  settle  the  fair  semi-slumberer's  pillow,  and 
fix  the  tarpaulin  over  her  silks  and  wraps :  and  bend  his 
head  to  the  soft  mouth  murmuring  thanks.  The  women 
who  can  dare  the  nuit  blanche,  and  under  stars ;  and  have 
a  taste  for  holiday  larks  after  their  thirtieth,  are  rare; 
they  are  precious.  Nataly  nevertheless  was  approved  for 
guarding  her  throat  from  the  nightwind.  And  a  softer 
southerly  breath  never  crossed  Channel  !  The  very  breeze 
he  had  wished  for  !     Luck  was  with  him. 

Nesta  sat  by  the  rails  of  the  vessel  beside  her  Louise. 
Mr.  Sowerby  in  passing,  exchanged  a  description  of 
printed  agreement  with  her,  upon  the  beauty  of  the  night 
—  a  good  neutral  topic  for  the  encounter  of  the  sexes : 
not  that  he  wanted  it  neutral;  it  furnished  him  with  a 
vocabulary.  Once  he  perceptibly  washed  his  hands  of 
dutiful  politeness,  in  addressing  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles, 
likewise  upon  the  beauty  of  the  night;  and  the  French 
lady,  thinking  —  too  conclusively  from  the  breath  on  the 
glass  at  the  moment,  as  it  is  the  Gallic  habit  —  that  if  her 
dear  Nesta  must  espouse  one  of  the  uninteresting  creatures 
called  men  in  her  native  land,  it  might  as  well  be  this  as 
another,  agreed  that  the  night  was  very  beautiful. 

"He  speaks  grammatical  French,"  Nesta  commented  on 
his  achievement.  "He  contrives  in  his  walking  not  to  wet 
his  boots,"  mademoiselle  rejoined. 

Mr.  Peridon  was  a  more  welcome  sample  of  the  islanders, 
despite  an  inferior  pretension  to  accent.  He  burned  to  be 
near  these  ladies,  and  he  passed  them  but  once.  His 
enthusiasm  for  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  was  notorious. 
Gratefully  the  compliment  was  acknowledged  by  her,  in 
her  demure  fashion;  with  a  reserve  of  comic  intellectual 
contempt  for  the  man  who  could  not  see  that  women ,  or 
Frenchwomen,  or  eminently  she  among  them,  must  have 
their  enthusiasm  set  springing  in  the  breast  before  they 


130  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUEEOES 

can  be  swayed  by  the  most  violent  of  outer  gales.  And 
say,  that  she  is  uprooted;  —  he  does  but  roll  a  log.  Mr. 
Peridon's  efforts  to  perfect  himself  in  the  French  tongue 
touched  her. 

A  night  of  May  leaning  on  June,  is  little  more  than  a 
deliberate  wink  of  the  eye  of  light.  Mr.  Barmby,  an  exile 
from  the  ladies  by  reason  of  an  addiction  to  tobacco, 
quitted  the  forepart  of  the  vessel  at  the  first  greying. 
Now  was  the  cloak  of  night  worn  threadbare,  and  grey 
astir  for  the  heralding  of  gold,  day  visibly  ready  to  show 
its  warmer  throbs.  The  gentle  waves  were  just  a  stronger 
grey  than  the  sky,  perforce  of  an  interfusion  that  shifted 
gradations ;  they  were  silken,  in  places  oily  grey ;  cold  to 
drive  the  sight  across  their  playful  monotonousness  for 
refuge  on  any  far  fisher-sail. 

Miss  Eadnor  was  asleep,  eyelids  benignly  down,  lips 
mildly  closed.  The  girl's  cheeks  held  colour  to  match  a 
dawn  yet  unawakened  though  born.  They  were  in  a  nest 
shading  amid  silks  of  pale  blue,  and  there  was  a  languid 
flutter  beneath  her  chin  to  the  catch  of  the  morn-breeze. 
Bacchanal  threads  astray  from  a  disorderly  front-lock  of 
rich  brown  hair  were  alive  over  an  eyebrow  showing  like  a 
seal  upon  the  lightest  and  securest  of  slumbers. 

Mr.  Barmby  gazed,  and  devoutly.  Both  the  ladies  were 
in  their  oblivion;  the  younger  quite  saintly;  but  the 
couple  inseparably  framed,  elevating  to  behold ;  a  reproach 
to  the  reminiscence  of  pipes.  He  was  near;  and  quietly 
the  eyelids  of  mademoiselle  lifted  on  him.  Her  look  was 
grave,  straight,  uninquiring,  soon  accurately  perusing;  an 
arrow  of  Artemis  for  penetration.  He  went  by,  with  the 
sound  in  the  throat  of  a  startled  bush-bird  taking  to  wing; 
he  limped  off  some  nail  of  the  deck,  as  if  that  young 
Frenchwoman  had  turned  the  foot  to  a  hoof.  Man  could 
not  be  more  guiltless,  yet  her  look  had  perturbed  him; 
nails  conspired;  in  his  vexation,  he  execrated  tobacco. 
And  ask  not  why,  where  reason  never  was. 

Nesta  woke  babbling  on  the  subject  she  had  relinquished 
for  sleep.  Mademoiselle  touched  a  feathery  finger  at  her 
hair  and  hood  during  their  silvery  French  chimes. 

Mr.  Sowerby  presented  the  risen  morning  to  them,  with 
encomiums,  after  they  liad  been  observing  every  variation 


DISCLOSES  A  STAGE  ON   THE  DBIVE  TO  PAKIS      181 

in  it.  He  spoke  happily  of  tlie  pleasant  passage,  and  of 
the  agreeable  night;  particularly  of  the  excellent  idea  of 
the  expedition  by  this  long  route  at  night;  the  prospect 
'of  which  had  disfigured  him  with  his  grimace  of  specula- 
tion —  apparently  a  sourness  that  did  not  exist.  Nesta  had 
a  singular  notion,  coming  of  a  girl's  mingled  observation 
and  intuition,  that  the  impressions  upon  this  gentleman 
were  in  arrear,  did  not  strike  him  till  late.  Mademoiselle 
confirmed  it  when  it  was  mentioned;  she  remembered  to 
have  noticed  the  same  in  many  small  things.  And  it 
was  a  pointed  perception. 

'  Victor  sent  his  girl  down  to  Nataly,  with  a  summons  to 
hurry  up  and  see  sunlight  over  the  waters.  Kataly  came; 
she  looked,  and  the  outer  wakened  the  inner,  she  let  the 
light  look  in  on  her,  her  old  feelings  danced  to  her  eyes 
like  a  string  of  bubbles  in  ascent.  "Victor,  Victor,  it 
seems  only  yesterday  that  we  crossed,  twelve  years  back 
—  was  it  ?  —  and  in  May,  and  saw  the  shoal  of  porpoises, 
and  five  minutes  after,  Dieppe  in  view.  Dear  French 
people!     I  share  your  love  for  France." 

"  Home  of  our  holidays !  —  the  *  drives ; '  and  they  may 
be  the  happiest.  And  fifty  minutes  later  we  were  off  the 
harbour;  and  Natata  landed,  a  stranger;  and  at  night  she 
was  the  heroine  of  the  town," 

Victor  turned  to  a  stately  gentleman  and  passed  his  name 
to  Nataly:  "Sir  Kodwell  Blachington,  a  neighbour  of 
Lakelands."  She  understood  that  Lady  Grace  Halley  was 
acquainted  with  Sir  Eodwell:  —  hence  this  dash  of  brine 
to  her  lips  while  she  was  drinking  of  happy  memories,  and 
Victor  evidently  was  pluming  himself  upon  his  usual  luck 
in  the  fortuitous  encounter  with  an  influential  neighbour 
of  Lakelands.  He  told  Sir  Eodwell  the  story  of  how  they 
had  met  in  the  salle  a  manger  of  the  hotel  the  impresario 
of  a  Concert  in  the  town,  who  had  in  his  hand  the  doctor's 
certificate  of  the  incapacity  of  the  chief  cantatrice  to  ap- 
pear, and  waved  it,  within  a  step  of  suicide.  "Well,  to 
be  brief,  my  wife  —  '  nohle  dame  Anglaise^ '  as  the  man 
announced  her  on  the  Concert  platform,  undertook  one  of 
the  songs,  and  sang  another  of  her  own — ^  pure  contralto 
voice,  as  you  will  say ;  with  the  result  that  there  was  a 
perfect  tumult  of  enthusiasm,     ^SText  day,  the  waiters  of 


132  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUERORS 

the  hotel  presented  her  with  a  bouquet  of  Spring  flowers, 
white,  and  central  violets.  It  was  in  the  Paris  papers, 
under  the  heading :  Une  amie  d^ outre  Manche  —  1  think 
that  Avas  it  ?  "  he  asked  Nataly. 

"I  forget,"  said  she. 

He  glanced  at  her ;  a  cloud  had  risen.  He  rallied  her, 
spoke  of  the  old  Norman  silver  cross  which  the  manager 
of  the  Concert  had  sent,  humbly  imploring  her  to  accept 
the  small  memento  of  his  gratitude.  She  nodded  an  ex- 
cellent artificial  brightness. 

And  there  was  the  coast  of  France  under  young  sunlight 
over  the  waters.  Once  more  her  oft-petitioning  wish 
through  the  years,  that  she  had  entered  the  ranks  of  pro- 
fessional singers,  upon  whom  the  moral  scrutiny  is  not  so 
microscopic,  invaded  her,  resembling  a  tide-swell  into 
rock-caves,  which  have  been  filled  before  and  left  to  empti- 
ness, and  will  be  left  to  emptiness  again.  Nataly  had  the 
intimation  visiting  us  when,  in  a  decline  of  physical  power, 
the  mind's  ready  vivacity  to  conjure  illusions  forsakes  us ; 
and  it  was,  of  a  wall  ahead,  and  a  force  impelling  her 
against  it,  and  no  hope  of  deviation.  And  this  is  the  fea- 
tureless thing,  Destiny;  not  without  eyes,  if  we  have  a 
conscience  to  throw  them  into  it  to  look  at  us. 

Counsel  to  her  to  live  in  the  hour,  came,  as  upon  others 
on  the  vessel,  from  an  active  breath  of  the  salt  prompting 
to  healthy  hunger;  and  hardly  less  from  the  splendour  of 
the  low  full  sunlight  on  the  waters,  the  skimming  and 
dancing  of  the  thousands  of  golden  shells  away  from  under 
the  globe  of  fire. 


CHAPTER  XV 

A   PATRIOT   ABROAD 


Nine  days  after  his  master's  departure,  Daniel  Skepsey, 
a  man  of  some  renown  of  late,  as  a  subject  of  reports  and 
comments  in  the  newspapers,  obtained  a  passport,  for  the 
identification,  if  need  were,  of  his  missing  or  misappre- 
hended person  in  a  foreign  country,  of  the  language  of 


A  tATRlOt  ABROAD  13S 

which  three  unpronounceable  words  were  knocking  about  his 
head  to  render  the  thought  of  the  passport  a  staff  of  safety ; 
and  on  the  morning  that  followed  he  was  at  speed  through 
Normandy,  to  meet  his  master  rounding  homeward  from 
Paris,  at  a  town  not  to  be  spoken  as  it  is  written,  by  reason 
of  the  custom  of  the  good  people  of  the  country,  with 
whom  we  would  fain  live  on  neighbourly  terms :  —  yes,  and 
they  had  proof  of  it,  not  so  very  many  years  back,  when 
they  were  enduring  the  worst  which  can  befall  us :  —  though 
Mr.  Durance,  to  whom  he  was  indebted  for  the  writing  of 
the  place  of  his  destination  large  on  a  card,  and  the  word- 
ing of  the  French  sound  beside  it,  besides  the  jotting  down 
of  trains  and  the  station  for  the  change  of  railways,  Mr. 
Durance  could  say,  that  the  active  form  of  our  sympathy 
consisted  in  the  pouring  of  cheeses  upon  them  when  they 
were  prostrate  and  unable  to  resist ! 

A  kind  gentleman,  Mr.  Durance,  as  Daniel  Skepsey  had 
recent  cause  to  know,  but  often  exceedingly  dark;  not  so 
patriotic  as  desireable,  it  was  to  be  feared;  and  yet, 
strangely  indeed,  Mr.  Durance  had  said  cogent  things  on 
the  art  of  boxing  and  on  manly  exercises,  and  he  hoped 
—  he  was  emphatic  in  saying  he  hoped  —  we  should  be 
regenerated.  He  must  have  meant,  that  boxing  on  a  grand 
scale  would  contribute  to  it.  He  said,  that  a  blow  now 
and  then  was  wholesome  for  us  all.  He  recommended  a 
monthly  private  whipping  for  old  gentlemen  who  decline 
the  use  of  the  gloves,  to  disperse  their  humours;  not  ex- 
cluding Judges  and  Magistrates :  —  he  could  hardly  be  in 
earnest.  He  spoke  in  a  clergyman^ s  voice,  and  said  it 
would  be  payment  of  good  assurance  money,  beneficial  to 
their  souls :  he  seemed  to  mean  it.  He  said,  that  old  gen- 
tlemen were  bottled  vapours,  and  it  was  good  for  them  to 
uncork  them  periodically.  He  said,  they  should  be  excused 
half  the  strokes  if  they  danced  nightly  —  they  resented 
motion.     He  seemed  sadly  wanting  in  veneration. 

But  he  might  not  positively  intend  what  he  said.  Skep- 
sey could  overlook  everything  he  said,  except  the  girding 
at  England.  For  where  is  a  braver  people,  notwithstand- 
ing appearances !  Skepsey  knew  of  dozens  of  gallant 
bruisers,  ready  for  the  cry  to  strip  to  the  belt;  worthy, 
with  a  little  public  encouragement,  to  rank  beside  their 


134  ONE  OF  OTJE   CONQUERORS 

grandfathers  of  the  Eing,  in  the  brilliant  times  when  royalty 
and  nobility  countenanced  the  manly  art,  our  nursery  of 
heroes,  and  there  was  not  the  existing  unhappy  division 
of  classes.  He  still  trusted  to  convince  Mr.  Durance,  by 
means  of  argument  and  happy  instances,  historical  and 
immediate,  that  the  English  may  justly  consider  them- 
selves the  elect  of  nations,  for  reasons  better  than  their 
accumulation  of  the  piles  of  gold  —  better  than  "usurers' 
reasons,"  as  Mr.  Durance  called  them.  Much  that  Mr. 
Durance  had  said  at  intervals  was,  although  remembered 
almost  to  the  letter  of  the  phrase,  beyond  his  comprehen- 
sion, and  he  put  it  aside,  with  penitent  blinking  at  hia 
deficiency. 

All  the  while,  he  was  hearing  a  rattle  of  voluble  tongueg 
around  him,  and  a  shout  of  stations,  intelligible  as  a  wash 
of  pebbles,  and  blocks  in  a  torrent.  Generally  the  men 
slouched  when  they  were  not  running.  At  Dieppe  he  had 
noticed  muscular  fellows ;  he  admitted  them  to  be  nimbler 
on  the  legs  than  ours;  and  that  may  count  both  ways,  he 
consoled  a  patriotic  vanity  by  thinking;  instantly  rebuking 
the  thought ;  for  he  had  read  chapters  of  Military  History. 
He  sat  eyeing  the  front  row  of  figures  in  his  third-class 
carriage,  musing  on  the  kind  of  soldiers  we  might,  heaven 
designing  it,  have  to  face,  and  how  to  beat  them ;  until  he, 
gazed  on  Eouen,  knowing  by  the  size  of  it  and  by  what  Mr. 
Durance  had  informed  him  of  the  city  on  the  river,  that 
it  must  be  the  very  city  of  Rouen,  not  so  many  years  back 
a  violated  place,  at  the  mercy  of  a  foreign  foe.  Strong- 
pity  laid  hold  of  Skepsey.  He  fortified  the  heights  for 
defence,  but  saw  at  a  glance  that  it  was  the  city  for 
modern  artillery  to  command,  crush  and  enter.  He  lost 
idea  of  these  afflicted  people  as  foes,  merely  complaining 
of  their  attacks  on  England,  and  their  menaces  in  their 
Journals  and  pamphlets ;  and  he  renounced  certain  views 
of  the  country  to  be  marched  over  on  the  road  by  this  route 
to  Paris,  for  the  dictation  of  terms  of  peace  at  the  gates  of 
the  French  capital,  sparing  them  the  shameful  entry;  and 
this  after  the  rout  of  their  attempt  at  an  invasion  of  the 
Island ! 

A  man  opposite  him  was  looking  amicably  on  his  lively 
grey  eyes.     Skepsey  handed  a  card  from  his  pocket.     The 


A  PATEIOT  ABROAD  135 

man  perused  it,  and  crying :  "  Dreux  ?  "  waved  out  of  the 
carriage-window  at  a  westerly  distance,  naming  Rouen  as 
not  the  place,  not  at  all,  totally  other.  Thus  we  are  taught, 
that  a  foreign  General,  ignorant  of  the  language,  must  con- 
fine himself  to  defensive  operations  at  home ;  he  would  be 
a  child  in  the  hands  of  the  commonest  man  he  meets. 
Brilliant  with  thanks  in  signs,  Skepsey  drew  from  his 
friend  a  course  of  instruction  in  French  names,  for  our 
necessities  on  a  line  of  march.  The  roads  to  Great  Brit- 
ain's metropolis,  and  the  supplies  of  forage  and  provision 
at  every  stage  of  a  march  on  London,  are  marked  in  the 
military  offices  of  these  people;  and  that,  with  their  bark- 
ing Journals,  is  a  piece  of  knowledge  to  justify  a  belliger- 
ent return  for  it.     Only  we  pray  to  be  let  live  peacefully. 

Fervently  we  pray  it  when  this  good  man,  a  total  stran- 
ger to  us,  conducts  an  ignorant  foreigner  from  one  station 
to  another  through  the  streets  of  Rouen,  after  a  short 
stoppage  at  the  buffet  and  assistance  in  the  identification 
of  coins;  then,  lifting  his  cap  to  us,  retires. 

And  why  be  dealing  wounds  and  death  ?  It  is  a  more 
blessed  thing  to  keep  the  Commandments.  But  how  is  it 
possible  to  keep  the  Commandments  if  you  have  a  vexa- 
tious wife  ? 

Martha  Skepsey  had  given  him  a  son  to  show  the  hered- 
itary energy  in  his  crying  and  coughing;  and  it  was  owing, 
he  could  plead,  to  her  habits  and  her  tongue,  that  he  some- 
times, that  he  might  avoid  the  doing  of  worse  —  for  she 
wanted  correction  and  was  improved  by  it  —  courted  the 
excitement  of  a  short  exhibition  of  skill,  man  to  man,  on 
publicans'  first  floors.  He  could  have  told  the  magistrate 
so,  in  part  apology  for  the  circumstances  dragging  him  the 
other  day,  so  recently,  before  his  Worship;  and  he  might 
have  told  it,  if  he  had  not  remembered  Captain  Dartrey 
Fenellan's  words  about  treating  women  chivalrously: 
which  was  interpreted  by  Skepsey  as  correcting  them, 
when  called  upon  to  do  it,  but  never  exposing  them:  — 
only,  if  allowed  to  account  for  the  circumstances  pushing 
us  into  the  newspapers,  we  should  not  present  so  guilty  a 
look  before  the  public. 

Furthermore,  as  to  how  far  it  is  the  duty  of  a  man  to 
serve  his  master,  there  is  likewise  question:  whether  13 


186  •    ONE  OF  OtTE  COKQUEROES 

he,  while  receiving  reproof  and  punishment  for  excess  of 
zeal  in  the  service  of  his  master,  not  to  mention  the  welfare 
of  the  country,  morally  —  without  establishing  it  as  a 
principle  —  exonerated?  Miss  Graves  might  be  asked: 
save  that  one  would  not  voluntarily  trouble  a  lady  on  such 
subjects.  But  supposing,  says  the  opposing  counsel,  now 
at  work  in  Skepsey's  conscience,  supposing  this  act,  for 
which,  contraveneing  the  law  of  the  land,  you  are  reproved 
and  punished,  to  be  agreeable  to  you,  how  then?  We 
answer,  supposing  it  —  and  we  take  uncomplainingly  the 
magistrate's  reproof  and  punishment  —  morally  justified : 
can  it  be  expected  of  us  to  have  the  sense  of  guilt,  al- 
though we  wear  and  know  we  wear  a  guilty  look  before  the 
public  ? 

His  master  and  the  dear  ladies  would  hear  of  it ;  perhaps 
they  knew  of  it  now  ;  with  them  would  rest  the  settlement 
of  the  distressing  inquiry.  The  ladies  would  be  shocked : 
ladies  cannot  bear  any  semblance  of  roughness,  not  even 
with  the  gloves: — and  knowing,  as  they  must,  that  our 
practise  of  the  manly  art  is  for  their  protection  ! 

Skepsey's  grievous  prospect  of  the  hour  to  come  under 
judgement  of  a  sex  that  was  ever  a  riddle  unread,  clouded 
him  on  the  approach  to  Dreux.  He  studied  the  country 
and  the  people  eagerly ;  he  forbore  to  conduct  great  military 
operations.  Mr.  Durance  had  spoken  of  big  battles  round 
about  the  town  of  Dreux ;  also  of  a  wonderful  Mausoleum 
there,  not  equally  interesting.  The  little  man  was  in  deeper 
gloom  than  a  day  sobering  on  crimson  dusk  when  the  train 
stopped  and  his  quick  ear  caught  the  sound  of  the  station, 
as  pronounced  by  his  friend  at  Rouen. 

He  handed  his  card  to  the  station-master.  A  glance,  and 
the  latter  signalled  to  a  porter,  saying :  ^'  Paradis ; "  and  the 
porter  laid  hold  of  Skepsey's  bag.  Skepsey's  grasp  was 
firm ;  he  pulled,  the  porter  pulled.  Skepsey  heard  explana- 
tory speech  accompanying  a  wrench.  He  wrenched  back 
with  vigour,  and  in  his  own  tongue  explained,  that  he  held 
to  the  bag  because  his  master's  letters  were  in  the  bag,  all 
the  way  from  England.  For  a  minute,  there  was  a  down- 
right trial  of  muscle  and  will :  the  porter  appeared  furiously 
excited,  Skepsey  had  a  look  of  cooled  steel.  Then  the 
Frenchman,  requiring  to  *hrug,  gave  way  to  the  English- 


A  PATEIOT  ABROAD  137 

man's  eccentric  obstinacy,  and  signified  that  he  was  his 
guide.  Quite  so,  and  Skepsey  showed  alacrity  and  con- 
fidence in  following ;  he  carried  his  bag.  But  with  the  re- 
membrance of  the  kindly  serviceable  man  at  Rouen,  he 
sought  to  convey  to  the  porter,  that  the  terms  of  their 
association  were  cordial.  A  waving  of  the  right  hand  to 
the  heavens  ratified  the  treaty  on  the  French  side.  Nods 
and  smiles  and  gesticulations,  with  across-Channel  vocables, 
as  it  were  Dover  cliffs  to  Calais  sands  and  back,  pleasantly 
beguiled  the  way  down  to  the  Hotel  du  Paradis,  under  the 
Mausoleum  heights,  where  Skepsey  fumbled  at  his  pocket 
for  coin  current ;  but  the  Frenchman,  all  shaken  by  a  tornado 
of  negation,  clapped  him  on  the  shoulder,  and  sang  him  a 
quatrain.  Skepsey  had  in  politeness  to  stand  listening,  and 
blinking,  plunged  in  the  contrition  of  ignorance,  eclipsed. 
He  took  it  to  signify  something  to  the  effect,  that  money 
should  not  pass  between  friends.  It  was  the  amatory  fare- 
well address  of  Henri  IV.  to  his  Charmante  Gabrielle  :  and 
with  — 

**  Perce  de  mille  dardsy 
L'honneur  rrCappelle 
Au  champ  de  Mars,'^ 

the  Frenchman,  in  a  backing  of  measured  steps,  apologized 
for  his  enforced  withdrawal  from  the  stranger  who  had 
captured  his  heart. 

Skepsey's  card  was  taken  in  the  passage  of  the  hotel.  A 
clean-capped  maid,  brave  on  the  legs,  like  all  he  had  seen 
of  these  people,  preceded  him  at  quick  march  to  an  upper 
chamber.  When  he  descended,  bag  in  hand,  she  flung  open 
the  salon-door  of  a  table  d'hote,  where  a  goodly  number 
were  dining  and  chattering ;  waiters  drew  him  along  to  the 
section  occupied  by  his  master's  party.  A  chair  had  been 
kept  vacant  for  him;  his  master  waved  a  hand,  his  dear 
ladies  graciously  smiled;  he  stuck  the  bag  in  front  of  a 
guardian  foot,  growing  happy.  He  could  fancy  they  had 
not  seen  the  English  newspapers.  And  his  next  observation 
of  the  table  showed  him  wrecked  and  lost:  Miss  Nesta's 
face  was  the  oval  of  a  woeful  0  at  his  wild  behaviour  in 
England  during  their  absence.  She  smiled.  Skepsey  had 
nevertheless  to  consume  his  food — excellent,  very  tasty 


138  ONE  OF  OCJR  CONQUERORS 

soup  —  with  the  sour  sauce  of  the  thought  that  he  must  be 
tongue-tied  in  his  defence  for  the  time  of  the  dinner. 

"No,  dear  Skips,  please !  you  are  to  enjoy  yourself,"  said 
Nesta. 

He  answered  confusedly,  trying  to  assure  her  that  he  was 
doing  so,  and  he  choked. 

His  master  had  fixed  his  arrival  for  twenty  minutes 
earlier.  Skepsey  spoke  through  a  cough  of  long  delays  at 
stations.  The  Kev.  Septimus  Barmby,  officially  peacemaker, 
sounded  the  consequent  excuse  for  a  belated  comer.  It  was 
final ;  such  is  the  power  of  sound.  Looks  were  cast  from 
the  French  section  of  the  table  at  the  owner  of  the  pro- 
digious organ.  Some  of  the  younger  men,  intent  on  the 
charms  of  Albion's  daughters,  expressed  in  a  sign  and  a 
word  or  two  alarm  at  what  might  be  beneath  the  flooring : 
and  "Pas  encore  Lui  ! "  and  ^*  Son  avant-courier  !  "  and  other 
flies  of  speech  passed  on  a  whiff,  under  politest  of  cover, 
not  to  give  offence.     But  prodigies  claim  attention. 

Our  English,  at  the  close  of  the  dinner,  consented  to  say 
it  was  good,  without  specifying  a  dish,  because  a  selection 
of  this  or  that  would  have  seemed  to  italicize,  and  commit 
them,  in  the  presence  of  ladies,  to  a  notice  of  the  matter- 
of-course,  beneath  us,  or  the  confession  of  a  low  sensual 
enjoyment ;  until  Lady  Grace  Halley  named  the  ]3articular 
dressing  of  a  tete  de  veau  approvingly  to  Victor ;  and  he 
stating,  that  he  had  offered  a  suggestion  for  the  menu  of 
the  day,  Nataly  exclaimed,  that  she  had  suspected  it:  upon, 
which  Mr.  Sowerby  praised  the  menu^  Mr.  Barmby,  Peridon 
and  Catkin  named  other  dishes,  there  was  the  right  after- 
dinner  ring  in  Victor's  ears,  thanks  to  the  woman  of  the 
world  who  had  travelled  round  to  nature  and  led  the 
shackled  men  to  deliver  themselves  heartily.  One  tap,  and 
they  are  free.  That  is,  in  the  moments  after  dinner,  when 
nature  is  at  the  gates  with  them.  Only,  it  must  be  a  lady 
and  a  prevailing  lady  to  give  the  tap.  They  need  (our 
English)  and  will  for  the  ages  of  the  process  of  their  trans- 
formation need  a  queen. 

Skepsey,  bag  in  hand,  obeyed  the  motion  of  his  master's 
head  and  followed  him. 

He  was  presently  back,  to  remain  with  the  ladies  during 
his  master's  perusal  of  letters.    Nataly  had  decreed  that  he 


A  PATRIOT  ABROAD  139 

was  not  to  be  troubled ;  so  Nesta  and  mademoiselle  besought 
Mm  for  a  recital  of  his  French  adventures ;  and  strange  to 
say,  he  had  nothing  to  tell.  The  journey,  pregnant  at  the 
start,  exciting  in  the  course  of  it,  was  absolutely  blank  at 
the  termination.  French  people  had  been  very  kind;  he 
could  not  say  more.  But  there  was  more;  there  was  a 
remarkable  fulness,  if  only  he  could  subordinate  it  to  narra- 
tive. The  little  man  did  not  know,  that  time  was  wanted 
for  imagination  to  make  the  roadway  or  riverway  of  a  true 
story,  unless  we  press  to  invent;  his  mind  had  been  too 
busy  on  the  way  for  him  to  clothe  in  speech  his  impressions 
of  the  passage  of  incidents  at  the  call  for  them.  Things 
had  happened,  numbers  of  interesting  minor  things,  but 
they  all  slipped  as  water  through  the  fingers ;  and  he  being 
of  the  band  of  honest  creatures  who  will  not  accept  a  lift 
from  fiction,  drearily  he  sat  before  the  ladies,  confessing  to 
an  emptiness  he  was  far  from  feeling. 

Nesta  professed  excessive  disappointment.  "  Now,  if  it 
had  been  in  England,  Skips ! "  she  said,  under  her  mother^s 
gentle  gloom  of  brows. 

He  made  show  of  melancholy  submission. 

"  There,  Skepsey,  you  have  a  good  excuse,  we  are  sure," 
Nataly  said. 

And  women,  when  they  are  such  ladies  as  these,  are  sent 
to  prove  to  us  that  they  can  be  a  blessing ;  instead  of  the 
dreadful  cry  to  Providence  for  the  reason  of  the  spread  of 
the  race  of  man  by  their  means !  He  declared  his  readiness, 
rejecting  excuses,  to  state  his  case  to  them,  but  for  his  fear 
of  having  it  interpreted  as  an  appeal  for  their  kind  aid  in 
obtaining  his  master's  forgiveness.  Mr.  Durance  had  very 
considerately  promised  to  intercede.  Skepsey  dropped  a 
hint  or  two  of  his  naughty  proceedings  drily,  aware  that 
their  untutored  antipathy  to  the  manly  art  would  not  permit 
of  warmth. 

Nesta  said:  "Do  you  know,  Skips,  we  saw  a  grand 
exhibition  of  fencing  in  Paris." 

He  sighed.  "Ladies  can  look  on  at  fencing!  foils  and 
masks !  Captain  Dartrey  Fenellan  has  shown  me,  and  says, 
the  French  are  our  masters  at  it."  He  bowed  constrainedly 
to  mademoiselle. 

"  You  box,  M.  Skepsey !  '^  she  said. 


140  ONE  OF  OtJB  CONQUEEORS 

His  melancholy  increased :  "Much  discouragement  from 
Government,  Society !  If  ladies  .  .  .  but  I  do  not  venture. 
They  are  not  against  Games.  But  these  are  not  a  protection 
...  to  them,  when  needed ;  to  the  country.  The  country 
seems  asleep  to  its  position.  Mr.  Durance  has  remarked  on 
it :  —  though  I  would  not  always  quote  Mr.  Durance  .  .  . 
indeed,  he  says,  that  England  has  invested  an  Old  Maid's 
All  in  the  Millennium,  and  is  ruined  if  it  delays  to  come. 
*01d  maid,'  I  do  not  see.  I  do  not — if  I  may  presume  to 
speak  of  myself  in  the  same  breath  with  so  clever  a  gentle^ 
man,  agree  with  Mr.  Durance  in  everything.  But  the  chest- 
measurement  of  recruits,  the  stature  of  the  men  enlisted, 
prove  that  we  are  losing  the  nursery  of  our  soldiers." 

"  We  are  taking  them  out  of  the  nursery,  Skips,  if  you  're 
for  quoting  Captain  Dartrey,"  said  Nesta.  "  We  '11  never 
haul  down  our  flag,  though,  while  we  have  him  ! " 

"  Ah !  Captain  Dartrey  ! "  Skepsey  was  refreshed  by  the 
invocation  of  the  name. 

A  summons  to  his  master's  presence  cut  short  something 
he  was  beginning  to  say  about  Captain  Dartrey. 


CHAPTER    XVI 


ACCOUNTS     FOR    SKEPSEY'S    MISCONDUCT,   SHOWING    HOW    IT 
AFFECTED   NATALY 

His  master  opened  on  the  bristling  business. 

"  What 's  this,  of  your  name  in  the  papers,  your  appearing 
before  a  magistrate,  and  a  fine  ?     Tell  the  tale  shortly." 

Skepsey  fell  upon  his  attitude  for  dialectical  defence :  the 
modest  form  of  the  two  hands  at  rolling  play  and  the  head 
deferentially  sidecast.  But  knowing  that  he  had  gratified 
his  personal  tastes  in  the  act  of  serving  his  master's  inter- 
ests, an  interfusion  of  sentiments  plunged  him  into  self- 
consciousness  ;  an  unwonted  state  with  him,  clogging  to  a 
simple  story. 

"  First,  sir,  I  would  beg  you  to  pardon  the  printing  of 
your  name  beside  mine  ..." 


skepsey's  misconduct  141 

"Tush:  on  with  you." 

"  Only  to  say,  necessitated  by  the  circumstances  of  the 
case.  I  read,  that  there  was  laughter  in  the  court  at  my 
exculpation  of  my  conduct  —  as  I  have  to  call  it  j  and  there 
may  have  been.  I  may  have  expressed  myself.  ...  I  have 
a  strong  feeling  for  the  welfare  of  the  country." 

"  So,  it  seems,  you  said  to  the  magistrate.  Do  you  tell 
me,  that  the  cause  of  your  gross  breach  of  the  law,  was  a 
consideration  for  the  welfare  of  the  country  ?  Eun  on  the 
facts." 

"  The  facts  —  I  must  have  begun  badly,  sir."  Skepsey 
rattled  the  dry  facts  in  his  head  to  right  them.  From  his 
not  having  begun  well,  they  had  become  dry  as  things 
underfoot.  It  was  an  error  to  have  led  off  with  the  senti- 
ments. "  Two  very,  two  very  respectable  persons  —  respect- 
able —  were  desirous  to  witness  a  short  display  of  my,  my 
system,  I  would  say ;  of  my  science,  they  call  it." 

"  Don't  be  nervous.  To  the  point ;  you  went  into  a  field 
five  miles  out  of  London,  in  broad  day,  and  stood  in  a  ring, 
the  usual  riff-raff  about  you  ! " 

"  With  the  gloves  :  and  not  for  money,  sir  :  for  the  trial 
of  skill ;  not  very  jnany  people.  I  cannot  quite  see  the 
breach  of  the  law." 

"  So  you  told  the  magistrate.  You  were  fined  for  your 
inability  to  quite  see.     And  you  had  to  give  security." 

**  Mr.  Durance  was  kindly  responsible  for  me,  sir :  an 
acquaintance  of  the  magistrate." 

^'  This  boxing  of  yours  is  a  positive  mania,  Skepsey.  You 
must  try  to  get  the  better  of  it  —  must !  And  my  name  too  ! 
I  'm  to  be  proclaimed,  as  having  in  my  service  an  inveterate 
pugilist  —  who  breaks  the  law  from  patriotism  !  Male  or 
female,  these  very  respectable  persons  —  the  people  your 
show  was  meant  for  ?  " 

"  Male,  sir.  Females !  .  .  .  that  is,  not  the  respectable 
ones." 

"  Take  the  opinion  of  the  respectable  ones  for  your 
standard  of  behaviour  in  future." 

^'  It  was  a  mere  trial  of  skill,  sir,  to  prove  to  one  of  the 
spectators,  that  I  could  be  as  good  as  my  word.  I  wished, 
I  may  say,  to  conciliate  him,  partly.  He  would  not  —  he 
judged  by  size  —  credit  me  with  ...  he  backed  my  adver- 


142  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROBS 

sary  Jerry  Scroom  —  a  sturdy  boxer,  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  first  principles." 

"  You  beat  him  ?  " 

"  I  think  I  taught  the  man  that  I  could  instruct,  sir ;  he 
was  complimentary  before  we  parted.  He  thought  I  could 
not  have  lasted.  After  the  second  round,  the  police 
appeared." 

"  And  you  ran  ! " 

"No,  sir;  I  had  nothing  on  my  conscience." 

"  Why  not  have  had  your  pugilistic  display  in  a  publican's 
room  in  town,  where  you  could  have  hammer-nailed  and  ding- 
donged  to  your  heart's  content  for  as  long  as  you  liked  !  " 

"  That  would  have  been  preferable,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  safety  from  intrusion,  I  can  admit  —  speaking  humbly. 
But  one  of  the  parties  —  I  had  a  wish  to  gratify  him  —  is  a 
lover  of  old  English  times  and  habits  and  our  country 
scenes.  He  wanted  it  to  take  place  on  green  grass.  We 
drove  over  Hampstead  in  three  carts  and  a  gig,  as  a  com- 
pany of  pleasure  —  as  it  was.  A  very  beautiful  morning. 
There  was  a  rest  at  a  public-house.  Mr.  Shaplow  traces  the 
misfortune  to  that.  Mr.  Jarniman,  I  hear,  thinks  it  what 
he  calls  a  traitor  in  the  camp.  I  saw  no  sign  ;  we  were  all 
merry  and  friendly." 

"Jarniman?"  said  Victor  sharply.  "Who  is  the 
Jarniman  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Jarniman  is,  I  am  to  understand  from  the  acquaint- 
ance introducing  us  —  a  Mr.  Shaplow  I  met  in  the  train 
from  Lakelands  one  day,  and  again  at  the  corner  of  a  street 
near  Drury  Lane,  a  ham  and  beef  shop  kept  by  a  Mrs. 
Jarniman,  a  very  stout  lady,  who  does  the  chief  carving  in 
the  shop,  and  is  the  mother  of  Mr.  Jarniman :  he  is  in  a 
confidential  place,  highly  trusted."  Skepsey  looked  up  from 
the  hands  he  soaped:  "He  is  a  curious  mixture;  he  has 
true  enthusiasm  for  boxing,  he  believes  in  ghosts.  He 
mourns  for  the  lost  days  of  prize-fighting,  he  thinks  that 
spectres  are  on  the  increase.  He  has  a  very  large  appetite, 
depressed  spirits.  Mr.  Shaplow  informs  me  he  is  a  man  of 
substance,  in  the  service  of  a  wealthy  lady  in  poor  health, 
expecting  a  legacy  and  her  appearance  to  him.  He  has  the 
look  —  Mr.  Shaplow  assures  me  he  does  not  drink  to  excess : 
he  is  a  slow  drinker." 


143 

Victor  straightened :  '^  Bad  way  of  health,  you  said  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Jarniman  spoke  of  his  expectations  as  being  imme- 
diate :  he  put  it,  that  he  expected  her  spirit  to  be  out  for 
him  to  meet  it  any  day  —  or  night.  He  desires  it.  He 
says,  she  has  promised  it  —  on  oath,  he  says,  and  must  feel 
that  she  must  do  her  duty  to  him  before  she  goes,  if  she  is 
to  appear  to  him  with  any  countenance  after.  But  he  is 
anxious  for  her  in  any  case  to  show  herself,  and  says,  he 
should  not  have  the  heart  to  reproach  her.  He  has  princi- 
ples, a  tear  for  suffering  ;  he  likes  to  be  made  to  cry.  Mrs. 
Jarniman,  his  mother,  he  is  not  married,  is  much  the  same 
so  far,  except  ghosts ;  she  will  not  have  them  ;  except  after 
strong  tea,  they  come,  she  says,  come  to  her  bed.  She  is 
foolish  enough  to  sleep  in  a  close-curtained  bed.  But  the 
poor  lady  is  so  exceedingly  stout  that  a  puff  of  cold  would 
carry  her  off,  she  fears." 

Victor  stamped  his  foot.  "This  man  Jarniman  serves 
a  lady  now  in  a  —  serious,  does  he  say  ?   Was  he  precise  ?  " 

"Mr.  Jarniman  spoke  of  a  remarkable  number  of  diseases ; 
very  complicated,  he  says.  He  has  no  opinion  of  doctors. 
He  says,  that  the  lady's  doctor  and  the  chemist  —  she  sits  in 
a  chemist's  shop  and  swallows  other  people's  prescriptions 
that  take  her  fancy.  He  says,  her  continuing  to  live  is 
wonderful.  He  has  no  reason  to  hurry  her,  only  for  the 
satisfaction  of  a  natural  curiosity." 

"  He  mentioned  her  name  ?  " 

"  No  name,  sir." 

Skepsey's  limpid  grey  eyes  confirmed  the  negative  to 
Victor,  who  was  assured  that  the  little  man  stood  clean  of 
any  falsity. 

"You  are  not  on  equal  terms.  You  and  the  magistrate 
have  helped  him  to  know  who  it  is  you  serve,  Skepsey." 

"  Would  you  please  to  direct  me,  sir  ?  " 

"  Another  time.  Now  go  and  ease  your  feet  with  a  run 
over  the  town.  We  have  music  in  half  an  hour.  That  you 
like,  I  know.     See  chiefly  to  amusing  yourself." 

Skepsey  turned  to  go ;  he  murmured,  that  he  had  enjoyed 
his  trip. 

Victor  checked  him :  it  was  to  ask  whether  this  Jarniman 
had  specified  one,  any  one  of  the  numerous  diseases  afldicting 
his  aged  mistress. 


144  ONE   OF   OUK.   CONQUERORS 

Now  Jarniman  had  shocked  Skepsey  with  his  blunt  titles 
for  a  couple  of  the  foremost  maladies  assailing  the  poor 
lady's  decayed  constitution :  not  to  be  mentioned,  Skepsey 
thought,  in  relation  to  ladies ;  whose  organs  and  functions 
we,  who  pay  them  a  proper  homage  by  restricting  them  to 
the  sphere  so  worthily  occupied  by  their  mothers  up  to  the 
very  oldest  date,  respectfully  curtain ;  their  accepted  masters 
are  chivalrous  to  them,  deploring  their  need  at  times  for  the 
doctors  and  drugs.  He  stood  looking  most  unhappy.  "  She 
was  to  appear,  sir,  in  a  few  —  perhaps  a  week,  a  month." 

A  nod  dismissed  him. 

The  fun  of  the  expedition  (and  Dudley  Sowerby  had 
wound  himself  up  to  relish  it)  was  at  night  in  the  towns, 
when  the  sound  of  instrumental  and  vocal  music  attracted 
crowds  beneath  the  windows  of  the  hotel,  and  they  heard 
zorij  zon,  violon,  flute  et  basse ;  not  bad  fluting,  excellent 
fiddling,  such  singing  as  a  maestro,  conducting  his  own 
Opera,  would  have  approved.  So  Victor  said  of  his  darlings* 
voices.  ISTesta's  and  her  mother's  were  a  perfect  combina- 
tion ;  Mr.  Barmby's  trompe  in  union,  sufficiently  confirmed 
the  popular  impression,  that  they  were  artistes.  They  had 
been  ceremoniously  ushered  to  their  carriages,  with  expres- 
sions of  gratitude,  at  the  departure  from  Eouen ;  and  the 
Boniface  at  Gisors  had  entreated  them  to  stay  another  night, 
to  give  an  entertainment.  Victor  took  his  pleasure  in  let- 
ting it  be  known,  that  they  were  a  quiet  English  family, 
simply  keeping-up  the  habits  they  practiced  in  Old  England : 
all  were  welcome  to  hear  them  while  they  were  doing  it ; 
but  they  did  not  give  entertainments. 

The  pride  of  the  pleasure  of  reversing  the  general  idea  of 
English  dulness  among  our  neighbours,  was  perceived  to 
have  laid  fast  hold  of  Dudley  Sowerby  at  Dreux.  He  was 
at  the  window  from  time  to  time,  counting  heads  below. 
For  this  reason  or  a  better,  he  begged  Nesta  to  supplant  the 
flute  duet  with  the  soprano  and  contralto  of  the  Helena 
section  of  the  Mefistofele,  called  the  Serenade:  La  Luna 
immobile.  She  consulted  her  mother,  and  they  sang  it. 
The  crowds  below,  swoln  to  a  block  of  the  street,  were  dead 
still,  showing  the  instinctive  good  manners  of  the  people. 
Then  mademoiselle  astonished  them  with  a  Provencal  or 
Cevennes  air,  Huguenot,  though  she  was  Catholic  3  but  it 


skepsey's  misconduct  145 

suited  her  mezzo-soprano  tones ;  and  it  rang  massively  of 
the  martial-religious.  To  what  heights  of  spiritual  grandeur 
might  not  a  Huguenot  France  have  marched !  Dudley 
Sowerby,  heedlessly,  under  an  emotion  that  could  be  stirred  in 
him  with  force,  by  the  soul  of  religion  issuing  through  music, 
addressed  his  ejaculation  to  Lady  Grace  Halley.  She  did 
not  shrug  or  snub  him,  but  rejoined :  "  I  could  go  to  battle 
with  that  song  in  the  ears."  She  liked  seeing  him  so 
happily  transformed;  and  liked  the  effect  of  it  on  Nesta 
when  his  face  shone  in  talking.  He  was  at  home  with  the 
girl's  eyes,  as  he  had  never  been.  A  song  expressing  in 
one  the  combative  and  devotional,  went  to  the  springs  of 
his  blood ;  for  he  was  of  an  old  warrior  race,  beneath  the 
thick  crust  of  imposed  peaceful  maxims  and  commercial 
pursuits  and  habitual  stiff  correctness.  As  much  as  wine, 
will  music  bring  out  the  native  bent  of  the  civilized  man : 
endow  him  with  language  too.  He  was  as  if  unlocked  ;  he 
met  isesta's  eyes  and  ran  in  a  voluble  interchange,  that 
gave  him  flattering  after-thoughts;  and  at  the  moment 
sensibly  a  new  and  assured,  or  to  some  extent  assured, 
station  beside  a  girl  so  vivid ;  by  which  the  young  lady 
would  be  helped  to  perceive  his  unvoiced  soldier  gifts. 

Nataly  observed  them,  thinking  of  Victor's  mastering 
subtlety.  She  had  hoped  (having  clearly  seen  the  sheep's 
eye  in  the  shepherd)  that  Mr.  Barmby  would  be  watchful 
to  act  as  a  block  between  them;  and  therefore  she  had 
stipulated  for  his  presence  on  the  journey.  She  remembered 
Victor's  rapid  look  of  readiness  to  consent :  —  he  reckoned 
how  naturally  Mr.  Barmby  would  serve  as  a  foil  to  any 
younger  man.  Mr.  Barmby  had  tried  all  along  to  perform 
his  part :  he  had  always  been  thwarted ;  notably  once  at 
Gisors,  where  by  some  cunning  management  he  and  made- 
moiselle found  themselves  in  the  cell  of  the  prisoner's  Nail- 
wrought  work  while  Nesta  had  to  take  Sowerby's  hand  for 
help  at  a  passage  here  and  there  along  the  narrow  outer 
castle-walls.  And  Mr.  Barmby,  upon  occasions,  had  set 
that  dimple  in  Nesta's  cheek  quivering,  though  Simeon 
Fenellan  was  not  at  hand,  and  there  was  no  telling  how  it 
was  done,  beyond  the  evidence  that  Victor  willed  it  so. 

From  the  day  of  the  announcement  of  Lakelands,  she 
had  been  brought  more  into  contact  with  his  genius  of  dex  • 

10 


146  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROKS 

terity  and  foresight  than  ever  previously  :  she  had  bent  to 
the  burden  of  it  more;  had  seen  herself  and  everybody  else 
outstripped  —  herself,  of  course;  she  did  not  count  in  a 
struggle  with  him.  But  since  that  red  dawn  of  Lakelands, 
it  was  almost  as  if  he  had  descended  to  earth  from  the  skies. 
She  now  saw  his  mortality  in  the  miraculous  things  he  did. 
The  reason  of  it  was,  that  through  the  perceptible  various 
arts  and  shifts  on  her  level,  an  opposing  spirit  had  plainer 
view  of  his  aim,  to  judge  it.     She  thought  it  a  mean  one. 

The  power  it  had  to  hurry  her  with  the  strength  of  a 
torrent  to  an  end  she  dreaded,  impressed  her  physically; 
so  far  subduing  her  mind,  in  consequence,  as  to  keep  the 
idea  of  absolute  resistance  obscure,  though  her  bosom 
heaved  with  the  breath ;  but  what  was  her  own  of  a  mind 
hung  hovering  above  him,  criticizing ;  and  involuntarily, 
discomfortingly.  She  could  have  prayed  to  be  led  blindly 
or  blindly  dashed  on  :  she  could  trust  him  for  success  ;  and 
her  critical  mind  seemed  at  times  a  treachery.  Still  she 
was  compelled  to  judge. 

When  he  said  to  her  at  night,  pressing  both  her  hands : 
"  This  is  the  news  of  the  day,  my  love !  It 's  death  at  last. 
We  shall  soon  be  thanking  heaven  for  freedom ; "  her  fin- 
gers writhed  upon  his  and  gripped  them  in  a  torture  of 
remorse  on  his  behalf.  A  shattering  throb  of  her  heart 
gave  her  sight  of  herself  as  well.  For  so  it  is  with  the 
woman  who  loves  in  subjection,  she  may  be  a  critic  of  the 
man,  she  is  his  accomplice. 

"  You  have  a  letter,  Victor  ?  " 

"  Confirmation  all  round :  Fenellan,  Themison,  and  now 
Skepsey." 

He  told  her  the  tale  of  Skepsey  and  Jarniman,  colouring 
it,  as  any  interested  animated  conduit  necessarily  will. 
Neither  of  them  smiled. 

The  effort  to  think  soberly  exhausted  and  rolled  her  back 
on  credulity. 

It  might  not  be  to-day  or  next  week  or  month:  but 
so  much  testimony  pointed  to  a  day  within  the  horizon, 
surely ! 

She  bowed  her  head  to  heaven  for  forgiveness.  The 
murderous  hope  stood  up,  stood  out  in  forms  and  pictures. 
There  was  one  of  a  woman  at  her  ease  at  last  in  the  recep- 


skepsey's  miscoxduct  147 

tion  of  guests ;  contrasting  with  an  ironic  haunting  figure 
of  the  woman  of  queenlj^  air  and  stature  under  a  finger  of 
scorn  for  a  bold-faced  impostor.  Nataly's  lips  twitched  at 
the  remembrance  of  quaint  whimpers  of  complaint  to  the 
Fates,  for  directing  that  a  large  instead  of  a  rather  diminu- 
tive woman  should  be  the  social  offender  fearing  exposure. 
Majesty  in  the  criminal's  dock,  is  a  confounding  spectacle. 
To  the  bosom  of  the  majestic  creature,  all  her  glorious 
attributes  have  become  the  executioner's  implements.  She 
must  for  her  soul's  health  believe  that  a  day  of  release  and 
exoneration  approaches. 

"Barmby  !  — if  my  dear  girl  would  like  him  best,"  Vic- 
tor said,  in  tenderest  undertones,  observing  the  shadowing 
variations  of  her  face  ;  and  pierced  her  cruelly,  past  expla- 
nation or  understanding; — not  that  she  would  have  ob- 
jected to  the  Eev.  Septimus  as  officiating  clergyman. 

She  nodded.     Down  rolled  the  first  big  tear. 

We  cry  to  women ;  Land,  ho !  —  a  land  of  palms  after 
storms  at  sea ;  and  at  once  they  inundate  us  with  a  deluge 
of  eye-water. 

"Half  a  minute,  dear  Victor,  not  longer,"  Nataly  said, 
weeping,  near  on  laughing  over  his  look  of  wanton  aban- 
donment to  despair  at  sight  of  her  tears.  "  Don't  mind  me. 
I  am  rather  like  Fenellan's  laundress*  the  tearful  woman 
whose  professional  apparatus  was  her  soft  heart  and  a  cake 
of  soap.     Skepsey  has  made  his  peace  with  you?" 

Victor  answered:  "Yes,  yes;  I  see  what  he  has  been 
about.  We  're  a  mixed  lot,  all  of  us  —  the  best !  You  Ve 
noticed,  Skepsey  has  no  laugh :  however  absurd  the  thing 
he  tells  you,  not  a  smile  ! " 

"  But  you  trust  his  eyes ;  you  look  fathoms  into  them. 
Captain  Dartrey  thinks  him  one  of  the  men  most  in  earnest 
of  any  of  his  country." 

"  So  Nataly  of  course  thinks  the  same.  And  he 's  a 
worthy  little  velocipede,  as  Fenellan  calls  him.  One  wishes 
Colney  had  been  with  us.  Only  Colney  !  —  pity  one  can't 
cut  his  talons  for  the  space  before  they  grow  again." 

Ay,  and  in  the  presence  of  Colney  Durance,  Victor 
would  not  have  been  so  encourageing,  half  boyishly  caress- 
ing, with  Dudley  Sowerby  !  It  was  the  very  manner  to 
sow  seed  of  imitativeness  in  the  girl,  devoted  as  she  w^as  to 


148  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

her  father.  Nataly  sighed,  foreseeing  evil,  owning  it  a 
superstition,  feeling  it  a  certainty.  We  are  easily  prophets, 
sure  of  being  justified,  when  the  cleverness  of  schemes 
devoted  to  material  ends  appears  most  delicately  perfect. 
History,  the  tales  of  households,  the  tombstone,  are  with 
us  to  inspire.  In  Nataly's  bosom,  the  reproof  of  her 
inefficiency  for  offering  counsel  where  Victor  for  his  soul's 
sake  needed  it,  was  beginning  to  thunder  at  whiles  as  a 
reproach  of  unfittingness  in  his  mate,  worse  than  a  public 
denunciation  of  the  sin  against  Society. 

It  might  be  decreed  that  she  and  Society  were  to  come  to 
reconcilement.  A  pain  previously  thought  of,  never  pre- 
viously so  realized,  seized  her  at  her  next  sight  of  Nesta. 

She  had  not  taken  in  her  front  mind  the  contrast  of  the 
innocent  one  condemned  to  endure  the  shadow  from  which 
the  guilty  was  by  a  transient  ceremony  released.  Nature 
could  at  a  push  be  eloquent  to  defend  the  guilty.  Not  a 
word  of  vindicating  eloquence  rose  up  to  clear  the  innocent. 
Nothing  that  she  could  do ;  no  devotedness,  not  any  sacri- 
fice, and  no  treaty  of  peace,  no  possible  joy  to  come,  nothing 
could  remove  the  shadow  from  her  child.  She  dreamed  of 
the  succour  in  eloquence,  to  charm  the  ears  of  chosen  juries 
while  a  fact  spoke  over  the  population,  with  a  relentless 
rolling  out  of  its  one  hard  word.  But  eloquence,  power- 
ful on  her  behalf,  was  dumb  when  referred  to  Nesta.  It 
seemed  a  cruel  mystery.  How  was  it  permitted  by  the 
Merciful  Disposer  !  .  .  .  Nataly's  intellect  and  her  rev- 
erence clashed.  They  clash  to  the  end  of  time  if  we  per- 
sist in  regarding  the  Spirit  of  Life  as  a  remote  Externe,  who 
plays  the  human  figures,  to  bring  about  this  or  that  issue, 
instead  of  being  beside  us,  within  us,  our  breath,  if  we  will ; 
marking  on  us  where  at  each  step  we  sink  to  the  animal, 
mount  to  the  divine,  we  and  ours  who  follow,  offspring  of 
body  or  mind.  She  was  in  her  error,  from  judgeing  of  the 
destiny  of  man  by  the  fate  of  individuals.  Chiefly  her 
error  was,  to  try  to  be  thinking  at  all  amid  the  fevered 
tangle  of  her  sensations. 

A  darkness  fell  upon  the  troubled  woman,  and  was  thicker 
overhead  when  her  warm  blood  had  drawn  her  to  some  ac- 
ceptance of  the  philosophy  of  existence,  in  a  savour  of 
gratification  at  the  prospect  of  her  equal  footing  with  the 


A  YOtTNG  maid's  IMAGININGS  149 

world  while  yet  she  lived.  She  hated  herself  for  taking 
pleasure  in  anything  to  be  bestowed  by  a  world  so  hap- 
hazard, ill-balanced,  unjust ;  she  took  it  bitterly,  with  such 
naturalness  as  not  to  be  aware  that  it  was  irony  and  a 
poisonous  irony  moving  her  to  welcome  the  restorative 
ceremony  because  her  largeness  of  person  had  a  greater 
than  common  need  of  the  protection. 


CHAPTEK  XVII 


IMAGININGS 


That  Mausoleum  at  Dreux  may  touch  to  lift  us.  History 
pleads  for  the  pride  of  the  great  discrowned  Family  giving 
her  illumination  there.  The  pride  is  reverently  postured, 
the  princely  mourning-cloak  it  wears  becomingly  braided 
at  the  hem  with  fair  designs  of  our  mortal  humility  in  the 
presence  of  the  vanquisher ;  against  whom,  acknowledgeing 
a  visible  conquest  of  the  dust,  it  sustains  a  placid  contention 
in  coloured  glass  and  marbles. 

Mademoiselle  de  Seilles,  a  fervid  Orleanist,  was  thanked 
for  having  advised  the  curvature  of  the  route  homeward  to 
visit  "the  spot  of  so  impressive  a  monument:"  as  it  was 
phrased  by  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby;  whose  exposition 
to  Nesta  of  the  beautiful  stained-glass  pictures  of  incidents 
in  the  life  of  the  crusading  St.  Louis,  was  toned  to  be  like- 
wise impressive :  —  Colney  Durance  not  being  at  hand  to 
bewail  the  pathos  of  his  exhaustless  "whacking  of  the 
platitudes ; "  which  still  retain  their  tender  parts,  but  cry 
unheard  when  there  is  no  cynic  near.  Mr.  Barmby  1  aid-on 
solemnly. 

Professional  devoutness  is  deemed  more  righteous  on  such 
occasions  than  poetic  fire.  It  robes  us  in  the  cloak  of  the 
place,  as  at  a  funeral.  Generally,  Mr.  Barmby  found,  and 
justly,  that  it  is  in  superior  estimation  among  his  country- 
men of  all  classes.  They  are  shown  by  example  how  to 
look,  think,  speak j  what  to  do.     Poets  are  disturbing} 


150  ONE  Oi'  OUR   CONQUERORS 

they  cannot  be  comfortably  imitated^  they  are  unsafe,  not 
certainly  the  metal,  unless  you  have  Laureates,  entitled  to 
speak  by  their  pay  and  decorations ;  and  these  are  but  one 
at  a  time  —  and  a  quotation  may  remind  us  of  a  parody,  to 
convulse  the  sacred  dome  !  Established  plain  prose  officials 
do  better  for  our  English.  The  audience  moved  round  with 
heads  of  undertakers. 

Victor  called  to  recollection  Fenellan's  "Kev.  Glendo- 
veer'^  while  Mr,  Barmby  pursued  his  discourse,  uninter- 
rupted by  tripping  wags.  And  those  who  have  schemes,  as 
well  as  those  who  are  startled  by  the  criticism  in  laughter 
to  discover  that  they  have  cause  for  shunning  it,  rejoice 
when  wits  are  absent.  Mr.  Sowerby  and  Nesta  inter- 
changed a  comment  on  Mr.  Barmby's  remarks  :  The  Fate  of 
Princes  !  *  The  Paths  of  Glory  !  St.  Louis  was  a  very  dis- 
tant Roman  Catholic  monarch;  and  the  young  gentleman 
of  Evangelical  education  could  admire  him  as  a  Crusader. 
St.  Louis  was  for  Nesta  a  figure  in  the  rich  hues  of  royal 
Saintship  softened  to  homeliness  by  tears.  She  doated  on 
a  royalty  crowned  with  the  Saint's  halo,  that  swam  down 
to  us  to  lift  us  through  holy  human  showers.  She  listened 
to  Mr.  Barmby,  hearing  few  sentences,  lending  his  elo- 
quence all  she  felt:  he  rolled  forth  notes  of  a  minster 
organ,  accordant  with  the  devotional  service  she  was  hold- 
ing mutely.  Mademoiselle  upon  St.  Louis :  ^^  Worthy  to 
be  named  King  of  Kings !  '^  swept  her  to  a  fount  of  thoughts, 
where  the  thoughts  are  not  yet  shaped,  are  yet  in  the  breast 
of  the  mother  emotions.  Louise  de  Seilles  had  prepared 
her  to  be  strangely  and  deeply  moved.  The  girl  had  a 
heart  of  many  strings,  of  high  pitch,  open  to  be  musical  to 
simplest  wandering  airs  or  to  the  gales.  This  crypt  of  the 
recumbent  sculptured  figures  and  the  coloured  series  of  acts 
in  the  passage  of  the  crowned  Saint  thrilled  her  as  with 
sight  of  flame  on  an  altar-piece  of  History.  But  this  King 
in  the  lines  of  the  Crucifixion  leading,  gave  her  a  lesson  of 
life,  not  a  message  from  death.  With  such  a  King,  there 
would  be  union  of  the  old  order  and  the  new,  cessation  to 
political  turmoil :  Radicalism,  Socialism,  all  the  monster 
names  of  things  with  heads  agape  in  these  our  days  to 
gobble-up  the  venerable,  obliterate  the  beautiful,  leave  a 
stoniness  of  floods  where  field  and  garden  were,  would  be 


A  YOUNG  MAKTs  IMAGININGS  151 

appeased,  transfigured.  She  hoped,  she  prayed  for  that 
glorious  leader's  advent. 

On  one  subject,  conceived  by  her  only  of  late,  and  not 
intelligibly,  not  communicably :  a  subject  thickly  veiled; 
one  which  struck  at  her  through  her  sex  and  must,  she 
thought,  ever  be  unnamed  (the  ardent  young  creature  saw 
it  as  a  very  thing  torn  by  the  winds  to  show  hideous  gleams 
of  a  body  rageing  with  fire  behind  the  veil) :  on  this  one 
subject,  her  hopes  and  prayers  were  dumb  in  her  bosom.  It 
signified  shame.  She  knew  not  the  how,  for  she  had  no 
power  to  contemplate  it :  there  was  a  torment  of  earth  and 
a  writhing  of  lurid  dust-clouds  about  it  at  a  glimpse.  But 
if  the  new  crusading  Hero  were  to  come  attacking  that  — 
if  some  born  prince  nobly  man  would  head  the  world  to 
take  away  the  withering  scarlet  from  the  face  of  women, 
she  felt  she  could  kiss  the  print  of  his  feet  upon  the  ground. 
Meanwhile  she  had  enjoyment  of  her  plunge  into  the  inmost 
forest-well  of  mediaeval  imaginativeness,  where  youthful 
minds  of  good  aspiration  through  their  obscurities  find 
much  akin  to  them. 

She  had  an  eye  for  little  Skepsey  too:  unaware  that 
these  French  Princes  had  hurried  him  off  to  Agincourt, 
for  another  encounter  with  them  and  the  old  result  —  poor 
dear  gentlemen,  with  whom  we  do  so  wish  to  be  friendly  ! 
What  amused  her  was,  his  evident  fatigue  in  undergoing 
the  slow  parade,  and  sheer  deference  to  his  betters,  as  to 
the  signification  of  a  holiday  on  arrested  legs.  Dudley 
Sowerby^s  attention  to  him,  in  elucidating  the  scenes  with 
historical  scraps,  greatly  pleased  her.  The  Eev.  Septimus 
of  course  occupied  her  chiefly. 

Mademoiselle  was  always  near,  to  receive  his  repeated 
expressions  of  gratitude  for  the  route  she  had  counselled. 
Without  personal  objections  to  a  well-meaning  orderly  man, 
whose  pardonable  error  it  was  to  be  aiming  too  considerably 
higher  than  his  head,  she  did  but  show  him  the  voluble 
muteness  of  a  Frenchwoman's  closed  lips :  not  a  smile  at 
all,  and  certainly  no  sign  of  hostility;  when  bowing  to 
his  reiterated  compliment  in  the  sentence  of  French.  Mr. 
Barmby  had  noticed  (and  a  strong  sentiment  rendered  him 
observant,  unwontedly)  a  similar  alert  immobility  of  her  lips, 
indicating  foreign  notions  of  this  kind  or  that,  in  England  ? 


152  ONE  OF  OTJR  CONQUEROES 

an  all  but  imperceptible  shortening  or  loss  of  corners  at  the 
mouth,  upon  mention  of  marriages  of  his  clergy :  particularly 
once,  at  his  reading  of  a  lengthy  report  in  a  newspaper  of 
a  Wedding  Ceremony  involving  his  favourite  Bishop  for 
bridegroom  :  a  report  to  make  one  glow  like  Hymen  rollick- 
ing the  Torch  after  draining  the  bumper  to  the  flying 
slipper.  He  remembered  the  look,  and  how  it  seemed  to 
intensify  on  the  slumbering  features,  at  a  statement,  that 
his  Bishop  was  a  widower,  entering  into  nuptials  in  his 
fifty-fourth  year.  Why  not?  But  we  ask  it  of  Heaven 
and  Man,  why  not  ?  Mademoiselle  was  pleasant :  she  was 
young  or  youngish ;  her  own  clergy  were  celibates,  and  — 
no,  he  could  not  argue  the  matter  with  a  young  or  youngish 
person  of  her  sex.  Could  it  be  a  reasonable  woman  —  a 
woman !  —  who  disapproved  the  holy  nuptials  of  the  pastors 
of  the  flocks  ?  But  we  are  forbidden  to  imagine  the  con- 
ducting of  an  argument  thereon  with  a  lady :  —  Luther  .  .  . 
but  we  are  not  in  Luther's  time :  —  Nature  ...  no,  nor 
can  there  possibly  be  allusions  to  Nature.  Mr.  Barmby  won- 
dered at  Protestant  parents  taking  a  Papistical  governess 
for  their  young  flower  of  English  womanhood.  However, 
she  venerated  St.  Louis ;  he  cordially  also ;  there  they  met ; 
and  he  admitted,  that  she  had,  for  a  ^Frenchwoman,  a  hand- 
some face,  and  besides  an  agreeably  artificial  ingenuousness 
in  the  looks  which  could  be  so  politely  dubious  as  to  appear 
only  dubiously  adverse. 

The  spell  upon  Nesta  was  not  blown  away  on  English 
ground ;  and  when  her  father  and  mother  were  comparing 
their  impressions,  she  could  not  but  keep  guard  over  the 
deeper  among  her  own.  At  the  Chateau  de  Gisors,  leftward 
off  Vernon  on  Seine,  it  had  been  one  of  romance  and  wonder- 
ment, with  inquisitive  historic  soundings  of  her  knowledge 
and  mademoiselle's,  a  reverence  for  the  prisoner's  patient 
holy  work,  and  picturings  of  his  watchful  waiting  daily. 
Nail  in  hand,  for  the  heaven-sent  sunlight  on  the  circular 
dungeon-wall  through  the  slits  of  the  meurtrieres.  But  the 
Mausoleum  at  Dreux  spake  religiously;  it  enfolded  Mr 
Barmby,  hig  voice  re-edified  it.  The  fact  that  he  had  dis- 
coursed there,  though  not  a  word  of  the  discourse  was  re- 
membered, allied  him  to  the  spirit  of  a  day  rather  increas- 
ing in  sacredness  as  it  receded  and  left  her  less  the  possessor 
of  it,  more  the  worshipper. 


A  YOITNG   maid's  IMAGININGS  153 

Mademoiselle  had  to  say  to  herself ;  "  Impossible  !  "  after 
seeing  the  drift  of  her  dear  Nesta's  eyes  in  the  wake  of  the 
colossal  English  clergyman.  She  fed  her  incredulousness 
indignantly  on  the  evidence  confounding  it.  Nataly  was 
aware  of  unusual  intonations,  treble -stressed,  in  the  Bethesda 
and  the  Galilee  of  Mr.  Barmby  on  Concert  evenings :  as  it 
were,  the  towering  wood-work  of  the  cathedral  organ  in 
quake  under  emission  of  its  multitudinous  outroar.  The 
"  Which  ?'^  of  the  Eev.  Septimus,  addressed  to  Nesta,  when 
song  was  demanded  of  him;  and  her  "Either;''  and  his 
gentle  hesitation,  upon  a  gaze  at  her  for  the  directing  choice, 
could  not  be  unnoticed  by  women. 

Did  he  know  a  certain  thing  ?  —  and  dream  of  urging  the 
suit,  as  an  indulgent  skipper  of  parental  pages  ?  — 

Such  haunting  interrogations  were  the  conspirator's 
daggers  out  at  any  instant,  or  leaping  in  sheath,  against 
Nataly's  peace  of  mind.  But  she  trusted  her  girl's  laughing 
side  to  rectify  any  little  sentimental  overbalancing.  She 
left  the  ground  where  maternal  meditations  are  serious,  at 
an  image  of  Mr.  Barmby  knocking  at  Nesta's  heart  as  a 
lover.     Was  it  worth  inquiry  ? 

A  feminine  look  was  trailed  across  the  eyes  of  made- 
moiselle, with  mention  of  Mr.  Barmby's  name. 

Mademoiselle  rippled  her  shoulders.  *'  We  are  at  present 
much  enamoured  of  BethesdaJ^ 

That  watchfullest  showing  no  alarm,  the  absurdity  of  the 
suspicion  smothered  it. 

Nataly  had  moreover  to  receive  startling  new  guests: 
Lady  Eodwell  Blachington:  Mrs.  Eanning,  wife  of  the 
General :  young  Mrs.  Blathenoy,  wife  of  the  great  bill- 
broker:  ladies  of  Wrensham  and  about.  And  it  was  a 
tasking  of  her  energies  equal  to  the  buffetting  of  recurrent 
waves  on  deep  sea.  The  ladies  were  eager  for  her  entry  into 
Lakelands.  She  heard  that  Victor  had  appointed  Lady 
Blachington's  third  son  to  the  coveted  post  of  clerk  in  the 
Indian  house  of  Inchling  and  Kadnor.  These  are  the  deluge 
days  when  even  aristocracy  will  cry  blessings  on  the  man 
who  procures  a  commercial  appointment  for  one  of  its 
younger  sons  offended  and  rebutted  by  the  barrier  of  Ex- 
aminations for  the  Civil  Service.  "  To  have  our  Adolphus 
under  Mr.   Victor  Eadnor's  protection,  is  a  step!"  Lady 


154  ONE  OF   OITE  CONQUEROES 

Blachington  said*  Nataly  was  in  an  atmosphere  of  hints 
and  revealings.  There  were  City  Dinners,  to  which  one  or 
other  of  the  residents  about  Lakelands  had  been  taken  before 
he  sat  at  Victor's  London  table;  He  was  already  winning 
his  way,  apparently  without  effort j  to  be  the  popular  man 
of  that  neighbourhood.  A  subterranean  tide  or  a  slipping  of 
earth  itself  seemed  bearing  her  on.  She  had  his  promise 
indeed,  that  he  would  not  ask  of  her  to  enter  Lakelands 
until  the  day  of  his  freedom  had  risen ;  but  though  she 
could  trust  to  his  word,  the  heart  of  the  word  went  out  of  it 
when  she  heard  herself  thanked  by  Lady  Blachington  (who 
could  so  well  excuse  her  at  such  a  time  of  occupation  for 
not  returning  her  call,  that  she  called  in  a  friendly  way 
a  second  time,  warmly  to  thank  her)  for  throwing  open  the 
Concert  room  at  I^akelands  in  August,  to  an  Entertainment 
in  assistance  of  the  funds  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  an 
East  of  London  Clubhouse,  where  the  children  of  the  poor 
by  day  could  play,  and  their  parents  pass  a  disengaged 
evening.  Doubtless  a  worthy  Charity.  Nataly  was  alive 
to  the  duties  of  wealth.  Had  it  been  simply  a  demand  for 
a  donation,  she  would  not  have  shown  that  momentary 
pucker  of  the  brows,  which  Lady  Blachington  read  as  a 
contrast  with  the  generous  vivacity  of  the  husband. 

Nataly  read  a  leaf  of  her  fate  in  this  announcement.  Nay, 
she  beheld  herself  as  the  outer  world  vexedly  beholds  a 
creature  swung  along  to  the  doing  of  things  against  the 
better  mind,  An  outer  world  is  thoughtless  of  situations 
which  prepare  us  to  meet  the  objectionable  with  a  will 
benumbed ;  —  if  we  do  not,  as  does  that  outer  world,  belong 
to  the  party  of  the  readily  heroical.  She  scourged  her 
weakness  :  and  the  intimation  of  the  truth  stood  over  her, 
more  than  ever  manifest,  that  the  deficiency  affecting  her 
character  lay  in  her  want  of  language.  A  tongue  to  speak 
and  contend,  would  have  helped  her  to  carve  a  clearer  way. 
■But  then  again,  the  tongue  to  speak  must  be  one  which 
could  reproach,  and  strike  at  errors  ;  fence,  and  continually 
summon  resources  to  engage  the  electrical  vitality  of  a  man 
like  Victor.  It  was  an  exultation  of  their  life  together,  a 
mark  of  its  holiness  for  them  both,  that  they  had  never 
breathed  a  reproach  upon  one  another.  She  dropped  away 
from  ideas  of  remonstrance  j  faintly  seeing,  in  her  sigh  of 


A  YOTJKG  maid's  IMAGININGS  155 

submission,  that  the  deficiency  affecting  her  character  would 
have  been  supplied  by  a  greater  force  of  character,  pressing 
either  to  speech  or  acts.  The  confession  of  a  fated  inevitable 
in  the  mind,  is  weakness  prostrate.  She  knew  it :  but  she 
could  point  to  the  manner  of  man  she  was  matched  with  ; 
and  it  was  not  a  poor  excuse. 

Mr.  Barmby,  she  thought,  deserved  her  gratitude  in 
some  degree  for  stepping  between  Mr.  Sowerby  and  Nesta. 
The  girl  not  having  inclinations,  and  the  young  gentleman 
being  devoid  of  stratagem,  they  were  easily  kept  from  the 
dangerous  count  of  two. 

Mademoiselle  would  have  said,  that  the  shepherd  also 
had  rarely  if  ever  a  minute  quite  alone  with  her  lamb. 
Incredulously  she  perceived  signs  of  a  shock.  The  secret 
following  the  signs  was  betrayed  by  Nesta  in  return  for  a 
tender  grasp  of  hands  and  a  droll  flutter  of  eyelids.  Out 
it  came,  on  a  nod  first;  then  a  dreary  mention  of  a  date, 
and  an  incident,  to  bring  it  nearer  to  comprehension.  Mr. 
Barmby  —  and  decide  who  will  whether  it  is  that  Love 
was  made  to  elude  or  that  curates  impelled  by  his  fires  are 
subtle  as  aether  —  had  outwitted  French  watchfulness  by 
stealing  minutes  enough  on  a  day  at  Lakelands  to  declare 
himself.  And  no  wonder  the  girl  looked  so  forlorn :  he 
had  shivered  her  mediaeval  forest-palace  of  illuminated 
glass,  to  leave  her  standing  like  a  mountain  hind,  that 
sniffs  the  tainted  gale  off  the  crag  of  her  first  quick  leap 
from  hounds ;  her  instincts  alarmed,  instead  of  rich  imagi- 
nation colouring  and  fostering. 

She  had  no  memory  for  his  words;  so,  and  truly,  she 
told  her  Louise:  meaning  that  she  had  only  a  spiceless 
memory;  especially  for  the  word  love  in  her  ears  from  the 
mouth  of  a  man. 

There  had  been  a  dream  of  it;  with  the  life-awakening 
marvel  it  would  be,  the  humbleness  it  would  bring  to  her 
soul  beneath  the  golden  clothing  of  her  body:  one  of 
those  faint  formless  dreams,  which  are  as  the  bend  of 
grasses  to  the  breath  of  a  still  twilight.  She  lived  too 
spiritedly  to  hang  on  any  dream;  and  had  moreover  a 
muffled  dread  —  shadow-sister  to  the  virginal  desire  —  of 
this  one,  as  of  a  fateful  power  that  might  drag  her  down, 
disorder,  discolour.     But  now  she  had  heard  it :  the  word, 


156  ONE  OF  OTJR  CONQUERORS 

the  very  word  itself !  in  her  own  ears  !  addressed  to  her  ! 
in  a  man's  voice !  The  first  utterance  had  been  heard,  and 
it  was  over;  the  chapter  of  the  book  of  bulky  promise  of 
the  splendours  and  mysteries  —  the  shimmering  woods  and 
bushy  glades,  and  the  descent  of  the  shape  celestial,  and 
the  recognition  —  the  mutual  cry  of  affinity ;  and  overhead 
the  crimson  outrolling  of  the  flag  of  beneficent  enterprises 
hand  in  hand,  all  was  at  an  end.  These,  then,  are  the 
deceptions  our  elders  tell  of  !  That  masculine  voice  should 
herald  a  new  world  to  the  maiden.  The  voice  she  had 
heard  did  but  rock  to  ruin  the  world  she  had  been  living 
in. 

Mademoiselle  prudently  forbore  from  satirical  remarks 
on  his  person  or  on  his  conduct.  Nesta  had  nothing  to 
defend :  she  walked  in  a  bald  waste. 

"Can  I  have  been  guilty  of  leading  him  to  think?  .  .  ." 
she  said,  in  a  tone  that  writhed,  at  a  second  discussion  of 
this  hapless  affair. 

"They  choose  to  think,"  mademoiselle  replied.  "It  is 
he  or  another.  My  dear  and  dearest,  you  have  entered 
the  field  where  shots  fly  thick,  as  they  do  to  soldiers  in 
battle;  and  it  is  neither  your  fault  nor  any  one's,  if  you 
are  hit." 

Nesta  gazed  at  her,  with  a  shy  supplicating  cry  of 
"Louise." 

Mademoiselle  immediately  answered  the  tone  of  entreaty. 
"  Has  it  happened  to  me  ?  I  am  of  the  age  of  eight  and 
twenty;  passable,  to  look  at:  yes,  my  dear,  I  have  gone 
through  it.  To  spare  you  the  questions  tormenting  you, 
I  will  tell  you,  that  perhaps  our  experience  of  our  feelings 
comes  nigh  on  a  kind  of  resemblance.  The  first  gentleman 
who  did  me  the  honour  to  inform  me  of  his  passion,  was 
a  hunchback." 

Nesta  cried  "  Oh ! "  in  a  veritable  pang  of  sympathy,  and 
clapped  hands  to  her  ears,  to  shut  out  Mr.  Barmby's  boom 
of  the  terrific  word  attacking  Louise  from  that  deformed 
one. 

Her  disillusionment  became  of  the  sort  which  hears 
derision.  A  girl  of  quick  blood  and  active  though  unreg- 
ulated intellect,  she  caught  at  the  comic  of  young  women's 
hopes  and  experiences,  in  her  fear  of  it. 


A  YOUNG  maid's  IMAGININGS  157 

"My  own  precious  poor  dear  Louise!  what  injustice 
there  is  in  the  world  for  one  like  my  Louise  to  have  a 
hunchback  to  be  the  first!  ..." 

"But,  my  dear,  it  did  me  no  harm." 

"  But  if  it  had  been  known ! " 

"But  it  was  known!  " 

Nesta  controlled  a  shuddering :  "  It  is  the  knowledge  of 
it  in  ourselves  —  that  it  has  ever  happened ;  —  you  dear 
Louise,  who  deserve  so  much  better!  And  one  asks  —  Oh, 
why  are  we  not  left  in  peace !  And  do  look  at  the  objects 
it  makes  of  us ! "  Mademoiselle  could  see,  that  the  girl's 
desperation  had  got  hold  of  her  humour  for  a  life-buoy. 
"It  is  really  worse  to  have  it  unknown  —  when  you  are 
compelled  to  be  his  partner  in  sharing  the  secret,  and  feel 
as  if  it  were  a  dreadful  doll  you  conceal  for  fear  that  every- 
body will  laugh  at  its  face." 

She  resumed  her  seriousness :  "  I  find  it  so  hard  to  be 
vexed  with  him  and  really  really  like  him.  For  he  is  a 
good  man ;  but  he  will  not  let  one  shake  him  off.  He  dis- 
tresses: because  we  can't  quite  meet  as  we  did.  Last 
Wednesday  Concert  evening,  he  kept  away;  and  I  am 
annoyed  that  I  was  glad." 

"  Moths  have  to  pass  through  showers,  and  keep  their 
pretty  patterns  from  damage  as  best  they  can,"  said 
mademoiselle. 

Nesta  transformed  herself  into  a  disciple  of  Philosophy 
on  the  spot.  "Yes,  all  these  feelings  of  ours  are  moth- 
dust!  One  feels  them.  I  suppose  they  pass.  They  must. 
But  tell  me,  Louise,  dear  soul,  was  your  poor  dear  good 
little  afiiicted  suitor  — ■  was  he  kindly  pitied  ?  " 

"  Conformably  with  the  regulations  prescribed  to  young 
damsels  who  are  in  request  to  surrender  the  custody  of 
their  hands.  It  is  easy  to  commit  a  dangerous  excess  in 
the  dispensing  of  that  article  they  call  pity  of  them." 

"  And  he  —  did  he  ?  —  vowed  to  you  he  could  not  take  No 
for  an  answer  ?  " 

At  this  ingenuous  question,  woefully  uttered,  mademoi- 
selle was  pricked  to  smile  pointedly.  Nesta  had  a  tooth 
on  her  under-lip.  Then,  shaking  vapours  to  the  winds, 
she  said :  "  It  is  an  honour,  to  be  asked ;  and  we  cannot  be 
expected  to  consent.     So  I  shall  wear  through  it.  —  Only  I 


158  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

do  wisli  that  Mr.  Fenellan  would  not  call  him  The  Inch- 
cape  Bell !  "     She  murmured  this  to  herself. 

Mr.  Barmby  was  absent  for  two  weeks.  "  Can  anything 
have  offended  him  ? "  Victor  inquired,  in  some  consterna- 
tion, appreciating  the  man's  worth,  and  the  grand  basso  he 
was;  together  with  the  need  for  him  at  the  Lakelands 
Concert  in  August. 

Nataly  wrote  Mr.  Barmby  a  direct  invitation.  She  had 
no  reply.  Her  speculations  were  cut  short  by  Victor,  who 
handed  her  a  brief  note  addressed  to  him  and  signed  by  the 
Rev.  Septimus,  petitioning  for  a  private  interview. 

The  formality  of  the  request  incensed  Victor.  "Now, 
dear  love,  you  see  Colney's  meaning,  when  he  says,  there 
are  people  who  have  no  intimacy  in  them.  Here  's  a  man 
who  visits  me  regularly  once  a  week  or  more,  has  been 
familiar  for  years  —  four,  at  least ;  and  he  wants  to  speak 
to  me,  and  must  obtain  the  '  privilege '  by  special  appoint- 
ment !     What  can  be  the  meaning  of  it  ?  " 

"You  will  hear  to-morrow  afternoon,"  Nataly  said,  see- 
ing one  paved  way  to  the  meaning  —  a  too  likely  meaning. 

"  He  has  n't  been  .  .  .  nothing  about  Fredi,  surely!  " 

"I  have  had  no  information." 

"Impossible!  Barmby  has  good  sense;  Bottesini  can't 
intend  to  come  scraping  on  that  string.  But  we  won't 
lose  him;  he's  one  of  us.  Barmby  counts  for  more  at  a 
Charity  Concert  than  all  the  catalogue,  and  particularly  in 
the  country.     But  he  's  an  excellent  fellow  —  eh  ?  " 

"That  he  is,"  Nataly  agreed. 

Victor  despatched  a  cheerful  curt  consent  to  see  Mr. 
Barmby  privately  on  the  late  afternoon  of  the  day  to 
follow. 

Nesta,  returning  home  from  the  park  at  that  hour  of 
the  interview,  ignorant  of  Mr.  Barmby 's  purpose  though 
she  was,  had  her  fires  extinguished  by  the  rolling  roar  of 
curfew  along  the  hall-passage,  out  of  the  library. 


SUITORS  FOB  THE  HAND  OF  NESTA  VIOTOEIA      159 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

SUITORS   FOR   THE    HAND    OF   NESTA   VICTORIA 

When,  upon  the  well-known  quest,  the  delightful  singer 
Orpheus  took  that  downward  way,  coming  in  sight  of  old 
Cerberus  centiceps,  he  astutely  feigned  inattention  to  the 
hostile  appearances  of  the  multiple  beast,  and  with  a  wave 
of  his  plectrum  over  the  responsive  lyre,  he  at  the  stroke 
raised  voice.  This  much  you  know.  It  may  be  commu- 
nicated to  you,  that  there  was  then  beheld  the  most  singular 
spectacle  ever  exhibited  on  the  dizzy  line  of  division  be- 
tween the  living  and  the  dead.  For  those  unaccustomed 
musical  tones  in  the  last  thin  whiff  of  our  sustaining  air 
were  so  smartingly  persuasive  as  to  pierce  to  the  vitals  of 
the  faithful  Old  Dog  before  his  offended  sentiments  had 
leisure  to  rouse  their  heads  against  a  beggar  of  a  mortal. 
The  terrible  sugariness  which  poured  into  him  worked 
like  venom  to  cause  an  encounter  and  a  wrestling:  his 
battery  of  jaws  expressed  it.  They  gaped.  At  the  same 
time,  his  eyeballs  gave  up.  All  the  Dog,  that  would  have 
barked  the  breathing  intruder  an  hundredfold  back  to  earth, 
was  one  compulsory  centurion  yawn.  Tears,  issue  of  the 
frightful  internal  wedding  of  the  dulcet  and  the  sour  (a 
ravishing  rather  of  the  latter  by  the  former),  rolled  off 
his  muzzles. 

Now,  if  you  are  not  for  insisting  that  a  magnificent 
simile  shall  be  composed  of  exactly  the  like  notes  in 
another  octave,  you  will  catch  the  fine  flavour  of  analogy 
and  be  wafted  in  a  beat  of  wings  across  the  scene  of  the 
application  of  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby  to  Mr.  Victor 
Eadnor,  that  he  might  enter  the  house  in  the  guise  of 
suitor  for  the  hand  of  Nesta  Victoria.  It  is  the  excelling 
merit  of  similes  and  metaphors  to  spring  us  to  vault  over 
gaps  and  thickets  and  dreary  places.  But,  as  with  the 
visits  of  Immortals,  we  must  be  ready  to  receive  them. 
Beware,  moreover,  of  examining  them  too  scrupulously; 
they  have  a  trick  of  wearing  to  vapour  if  cjosely  scanned, 
Let  it  be  grat;efully  for  their  aid, 


160  ONE  OF  OUH  CONQUEROKS 

So  far  the  comparison  is  absolute,  that  Mr.  Barmby 
passed :  he  was  at  liberty  to  pursue  his  quest. 

Victor  could  not  explain  how  he  had  been  brought  to 
grant  it.  He  was  at  pains  to  conceal  the  bewilderment  Mr. 
Barmby  had  cast  on  him,  and  make  Nataly  see  the  small- 
ness  of  the  grant:  — both  of  them  were  unwilling  to  lose 
Barmby;  there  was  not  the  slightest  fear  about  Fredi,  he 
said;  and  why  should  not  poor  Barmby  have  his  chance  with 
the  others  in  the  race  !  —  and  his  Nataly  knew  that  he  hated 
to  speak  unkindly :  he  could  cry  the  negative  like  a  crack  of 
thunder  in  the  City.  But  such  matters  as  these  !  and  a  man 
pleading  merely  for  the  right  to  see  the  girl !  —  and  pleading 
in  a  tone  .  .  .  "I  assure  you,  my  love,  he  touched  chords." 

"  Bid  he  allude  to  advantages  in  the  alliance  with  him  ?  " 
Nataly  asked  smoothly. 

"  His  passion  —  nothing  else.  Candid  enough.  And  he 
had  a  tone  —  he  has  a  tone,  you  know.  It 's  not  what 
he  said.  Some  allusion  to  belief  in  a  favourable  opinion 
of  him  .  .  .  encouragement  ...  on  the  part  of  the  mama. 
She  would  have  him  travelling  with  us  !     I  foresaw  it." 

"You  were  astonished  when  it  came." 

"  We  always  are." 

Victor  taunted  her  softly  with  having  encouraged  Mr. 
Barmby. 

She  had  thought  in  her  heart — not  seriously;  on  a  sigh 
of  despondency  —  that  Mr.  Barmby  espousing  the  girl 
would  smoothe  a  troubled  prospect :  and  a  present  resent- 
ment at  her  weakness  rendered  her  shrewd  to  detect  Vic- 
tor's cunning  to  cover  his  own:  a  thing  imaginable  of 
him  previously  in  sentimental  matters,  yet  never  accurately 
and  so  legibly  printed  on  her  mind.  It  did  not  draw  her 
to  read  him  with  a  novel  familiarity;  it  drew  her  to  be 
more  sensible  of  foregone  intimations  of  the  man  he  was 
—  irresistible  in  attack,  not  impregnably  defensive.  Nor 
did  he  seem  in  this  instance  humanely  considerate:  if 
mademoiselle's  estimate  of  the  mind  of  the  girl  was  not 
wrong,  then  Mr.  Barmby's  position  would  be  both  a  ridicu- 
lous and  a  cruel  one.  She  had  some  silly  final  idea  that 
the  poor  man  might  now  serve  permanently  to  check  the 
more  dreaded  applicant:  a  proof  that  her  ordinary  reflec- 
tiveness was  blunted. 


SUITOKS  FOB  THE  HAND  OF  NESTA  VICTORIA      161 

Nataly  acknowledged,  after  rallying  Victor  for  coming 
to  liave  his  weakness  condoned,  a  justice  in  his  counter- 
accusation,  of  a  loss  of  her  natural  cheerfulness,  and  prom- 
ised amendment,  with  a  steely  smile,  that  his  lips  mimicked 
fondly;  and  her  smile  softened.  To  strengthen  the  dear 
soul's  hopes,  he  spoke,  as  one  who  had  received  the  latest 
information,  of  Dr.  Themison  and  surgeons ;  —  little  con- 
scious of  the  tragic  depths  he  struck  or  of  the  burden 
he  gave  her  heart  to  bear.  Her  look  alarmed  him.  She 
seemed  to  be  hugging  herself  up  to  the  tingling  scalp,  and 
was  in  a  moment  marble  to  sight  and  touch.  She  looked 
like  the  old  engravings  of  martyrs  taking  the  bite  of  the 
jaws  of  flame  at  the  stake. 

He  held  her  embraced,  feeling  her  body  as  if  it  were  in 
the  awful  grip  of  fingers  from  the  outside  of  life. 

The  seizure  was  over  before  it  could  be  called  ominous. 
When  it  was  once  over,  and  she  had  smiled  again  and  re- 
buked him  for  excessive  anxiety,  his  apprehensions  no 
longer  troubled  him,  but  subsided  sensationally  in  wrath 
at  the  crippled  woman  who  would  not  obey  the  dictate  of 
her  ailments  instantly  to  perish  and  spare  this  dear  one 
annoyance. 

Subsequently,  later  than  usual,  he  performed  his  usual 
mental  penance  for  it.  In  consequence,  the  wrath,  and  the 
wish,  and  the  penitence,  haunted  him,  each  swelling  to 
possession  of  him  in  turn;  until  they  united  to  head  a 
plunge  into  retrospects;  which  led  to  his  reviewing  the 
army  of  charges  against  Mrs.  Burman. 

And  of  this  he  grew  ashamed,  attributing  it  to  the  morbid 
indulgence  in  reflection:  a  disease  never  afflicting  him 
anterior  to  the  stupid  fall  on  London  Bridge.  He  rubbed 
instinctively  for  the  punctilio-bump,  and  could  cheat  his 
fancy  to  think  a  remainder  of  it  there,  just  below,  half  an 
inch  to  the  right  of,  the  spot  where  a  phrenologist,  invited 
by  Nataly  in  old  days,  had  marked  philo-progenitiveness 
on  his  capacious  and  enviable  cerebrum.  He  knew  well  it 
was  a  fancy.  But  it  was  a  fact  also,  that  since  the  day  of 
the  fall  (never,  save  in  merest  glimpses,  before  that  day), 
he  had  taken  to  look  behind  him,  as  though  an  eye  had 
been  knocked  in  the  back  of  his  head. 

Then,  was  that  day  of  the  announcement  of  Lakelands 

U 


162  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQUEROES 

to  Nataly,  to  be  accounted  a  gloomy  day  ?  He  would  not 
have  it  so. 

She  was  happily  occupied  with  her  purchases  of  furni- 
ture, Fredi  with  her  singing  lessons,  and  he  with  his  busi- 
ness; a  grasp  of  many  ribands,  reining-in  or  letting  loose; 
always  enjoyable  in  the  act.  Eecently  only  had  he  known 
when  at  home,  a  relaxation,  a  positive  pleasure  in  looking 
forward  to  the  hours  of  the  City  office.  This  was  odd,  but 
so  it  was ;  and  looking  homeward  from  the  City,  he  had  a 
sense  of  disappointment  when  it  was  not  Concert  evening. 
The  Cormyns,  the  Yatts,  and  Priscilla  Graves,  and  Pemp- 
ton,  foolish  fellow,  and  that  bothering  Barmby,  and  Peri- 
don  and  Catkin,  were  the  lineing  of  his  nest.  Well,  and  so 
they  had  been  before  Lakelands  rose.  What  had  induced! 
...  he  suddenly  felt  foreign  to  himself.  The  shrouded 
figure  of  his  lost  Idea  on  London  Bridge  went  by. 

A  peep  into  the  folds  of  the  shroud  was  granted  him : 
—  Is  it  a  truth,  that  if  we  are  great  owners  of  money,  we 
are  so  swoln  with  a  force  not  native  to  us,  as  to  be  precipi- 
tated into  acts  the  downright  contrary  of  our  tastes  ? 

He  inquired  it  of  his  tastes,  which  have  the  bad  habit 
of  unmeasured  phrasing  when  they  are  displeased,  and  so 
they  yield  no  rational  answer.  Still  he  gave  heed  to  vio- 
lent extraneous  harpings  against  money.  Epigrams  of 
Colney's;  abuse  of  it  and  the  owners  of  it  by  Socialist 
orators  reported  in  some  newspaper  corner, — had  him  by 
the  ears. 

They  ceased  in  the  presence  of  Lady  Grace  Halley,  who 
entered  his  office  to  tell  him  she  was  leaving  town  for 
Whinfold,  her  husband's  family-seat,  where  the  dear  man 
lay  in  evil  case.  She  signified  her  resignation  to  the 
decrees  from  above,  saying  generously : 

"You  look  troubled,  my  friend.     Any  bad  City  news ?" 

"I  look  troubled  ? "  Victor  said  laughing,  and  bethought 
him  of  what  the  trouble  might  be.  "City  news  would 
not  cause  the  look.  Ah,  yes;  —  I  was  talking  in  the  street 
to  a  friend  of  mine  on  horseback  the  other  day,  and  he  kept 
noticing  his  horse's  queer  starts.  We  spied  half  a  dozen 
children  in  the  gutter,  at  the  tail  of  the  horse,  one  of  them 
plucking  at  a  hair.  *  Please,  sir,  may  I  have  a  hair  out  of 
your  horse's  tail  ?  *  said  the  mite.     We  patted  the  poor 


SUITORS   FOE,  THE   HAND   OF   NEST  A   VICTORIA      163 

horse  that  grew  a  tail  for  urchins  to  pluck  at.  Men  come 
to  the  fathers  about  their  girls.  It 's  my  belief  that 
mothers  more  easily  say  no.  If  they  learn  the  word  as 
maids,  you  '11  say  !  However,  there  's  no  fear  about  my 
girl.  Fredi  's  hard  to  snare.  And  what  brings  you 
Cityward?" 

"  I  want  to  know  whether  I  shall  do  right  in  selling  out 
of  the  Tiddler  mine." 

"You  have  multiplied  your  investment  by  ten." 

"  If  it  had  been  thousands !  " 

"Clearly,  you  sell;  always  jump  out  of  a  mounted  mine, 
unless  you  're  at  the  bottom  of  it." 

"  There  are  City-articles  against  the  mine  this  morning 
—  or  I  should  have  been  on  my  way  to  Whinfold  at  this 
moment.     The  shares  are  lower." 

"  The  merry  boys  are  at  work  to  bring  your  balloon  to 
the  ground,  that  you  may  quit  it  for  them  to  ascend. 
Tiddler  has  enemies,  like  the  best  of  mines :  or  they  may 
be  named  lovers,  if  you  like.  And  mines  that  have  gone 
up,  go  down  for  a  while  before  they  rise  again;  it's  an 
affair  of  undulations;  rocket  mines  are  not  so  healthy. 
The  stories  are  false,  for  the  time.  I  had  the  latest  from 
Dartrey  Fenellan  yesterday.  He  's  here  next  month,  some 
time  in  August." 

"  He  is  married,  is  he  not  ?  " 

"Was." 

Victor's  brevity  sounded  oddly  to  Lady  Grace. 

"  Is  he  not  a  soldier  ?  "  she  said.  -  ^ 

"  Soldiers  and  parsons !  "  Victor  interjected. 

Now  she  saw.  She  understood  the  portent  of  Mr. 
Barmby's  hovering  offer  of  the  choice  of  songs,  and  the 
recent  tremulousness  of  the  welling  Bethesda. 

But  she  had  come  about  her  own  business;  and  after 
remarking,  that  when  there  is  a  prize  there  must  be  com- 
petition, or  England  will  have  to  lower  her  flag,  she 
declared  her  resolve  to  stick  to  Tiddler,  exclaiming :  "  It 's 
only  in  mines  that  twenty  times  the  stake  is  not  a  dream 
of  the  past ! " 

"  The  Eiviera  green  field  on  the  rock  is  always  open  to 
you,"  said  Victor. 

She  put  out  her  hand  to  be  taken,     "Not  if  you  back 


164  ONE  OF  OUB  CONQUEBOKS 

me  here.  It  really  is  not  gambling  when  yours  is  the 
counsel  I  follow.  And  if  I  'm  to  be  a  widow,  I  shall  have 
to  lean  on  a  friend,  gifted  like  you.  I  love  adventure, 
danger;  —  well,  if  we  two  are  in  it;  just  to  see  my  captain 
in  a  storm.  And  if  the  worst  happens,  we  go  down  to- 
gether. It 's  the  detestation  of  our  deadly  humdrum  of 
modern  life;  some  inherited  love  of  fighting." 

"Say,  brandy." 

"  Does  not  Mr.  Durance  accuse  you  of  an  addiction  to 
the  brandy  novel  ?  " 

"  Colney  may  call  it  what  he  pleases.  If  I  read  fiction, 
let  it  be  fiction ;  airier  than  hard  fact.  If  I  see  a  ballet, 
my  troop  of  short  skirts  must  not  go  stepping  like  pavement 
policemen.  I  can't  read  dull  analytical  stuff  or  *  stylists ' 
when  I  want  action  —  if  I  'm  to  give  my  mind  to  a  story. 
I  can  supply  the  reflections.  I  'm  English  —  if  Colney's 
right  in  saying  we  always  come  round  to  the  story  with 
the  streak  of  supernaturalism.  I  don't  ask  for  bloodshed : 
that 's  what  his  'brandy  '  means." 

"But  Mr.  Durance  is  right,  we  require  a  shedding;  1 
confess  I  expect  it  where  there  's  love ;  it 's  part  of  the 
balance,  and  justifies  one's  excitement.  How  otherwise 
do  you  get  any  real  crisis  ?  I  must  read  and  live  some- 
thing unlike  this  flat  life  around  us." 

"There 's  the  Adam  life  and  the  Macadam  life,  Fenellan 
says.  Pass  it  in  books,  but  in  life  we  can  have  quite 
enough  excitement  coming  out  of  our  thoughts.  No  brandy 
there  !  And  no  fine  name  for  personal  predilections  or 
things  done  in  domino  !  "  Victor  said,  with  his  very  pleas- 
ant face,  pressing  her  hand,  to  keep  the  act  of  long  hold- 
ing it  in  countenance  and  bring  it  to  a  well-punctuated 
conclusion :  thinking  involuntarily  of  the  other  fair  woman, 
whose  hand  was  his,  and  who  betrayed  a  beaten  visage 
despite  —  or  with  that  poor  kind  of  —  trust  in  her  captain. 
But  the  thought  was  not  guilty  of  drawing  comparisons. 
"This  is  one  that  I  could  trust,  as  captain  or  mate,"  he 
pressed  the  hand  again  before  dropping  it. 

"  You  judge  entirely  by  the  surface,  if  you  take  me  for 
a  shifty  person  at  the  trial,"  said  Lady  Grace. 

Skepsey  entered  the  room  with  one  of  his  packets,  and 
she  was  reminded  of  trains  and  husbands. 


STJITOES  FOR  THE  HAND  OF  NESTA  VICTORIA      165 

She  left  Victor  uncomfortably  ruffled :  and  how  ?  for  she 
had  none  of  the  physical  charms  appealing  peculiarly  to 
the  man  who  was  taken  with  grandeur  of  shape.  She 
belonged  rather  to  the  description  physically  distasteful  to 
him. 

It  is  a  critical  comment  on  a  civilization  carelessly  dis- 
tilled from  the  jealous  East,  when  visits  of  fair  women  to 
City  offices  can  have  this  effect.  If  the  sexes  are  separated 
for  an  hour,  the  place  where  one  is  excluded  or  not  common 
to  see,  becomes  inflammable  to  that  appearing  spark.  He 
does  outrage  to  a  bona  Dea :  she  to  the  monasticism  of  the 
Court  of  Law :  and  he  and  she  awaken  unhallowed  emo- 
tions. Supposing,  however,  that  western  men  were  to  de- 
orientalize  their  gleeful  notions  of  her,  and  dis-Turk 
themselves  by  inviting  the  woman's  voluble  tongue  to 
sisterly  occupation  there  in  the  midst  of  the  pleading 
Court,  as  in  the  domestic  circle:  very  soon  would  her 
eyes  be  harmless :  —  unless  directed  upon  us  with  intent. 

That  is  the  burning  core  of  the  great  Question,  our 
Armageddon  in  Morality :  Is  she  moral  ?  Does  she  mean 
to  be  harmless  ?  Is  she  not  untamable  Old  Nature  ?  And 
when  once  on  an  equal  footing  with  her  lordly  half,  would 
not  the  spangled  beauty,  in  a  turn,  like  the  realistic  trans- 
formation-trick of  a  pantomime,  show  herself  to  be  that 
wanton  old  thing  —  the  empress  of  disorderliness  ?  You 
have  to  recollect,  as  the  Conservative  acutely  suggests, 
that  her  timidities,  at  present  urging  her  to  support 
Establishments,  pertain  to  her  state  of  dependence.  The 
party  views  of  Conservatism  are,  must  be,  founded,  we 
should  remember,  on  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  her 
in  the  situations  where  she  is  almost  unrestrictedly  free 
and  her  laughter  rings  to  confirm  the  sentences  of  classical 
authors  and  Eastern  sages.  Conservatives  know  what  they 
are  about  when  they  refuse  to  fling  the  last  lattice  of  an 
ancient  harem  open  to  air  and  sun  —  the  brutal  dispersers 
of  mystery,  which  would  despoil  an  ankle  of  its  flying 
wink. 

Victor's  opinions  were  those  of  the  entrenched  majority; 
objecting  to  the  occult  power  of  women,  as  we  have  the 
women  now,  while  legislating  to  maintain  them  so;  and 
forbidding  a  step  to  a  desperately  wicked  female  world 


166  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

lest  the  step  should  be  to  wickeder.  His  opinions  were 
in  the  background,  rarely  stirred  j  but  the  lady  had  brought 
them  forward;  and  he  fretted  at  his  restlessness,  vexed 
that  it  should  be  due  to  the  intrusion  of  the  sex  instead  of 
to  the  charms  of  the  individual.  No  sting  of  the  sort  had 
bothered  him,  he  called  to  mind,  on  board  the  Channel 
boat  —  nothing  to  speak  of.  "  Why  does  she  come  here ! 
Why  did  n't  she  go  to  her  husband !  She  gets  into  the  City 
scramble  blindfold,  and  catches  at  the  nearest  hand  to  help 
her  out!  Nice  woman  enough."  Yes,  but  he  was  annoyed 
with  her  for  springing  sensations  that  ran  altogether  heart- 
less to  the  object,  at  the  same  time  that  they  were  disloyal 
to  the  dear  woman  their  natural  divinity.  And  between 
him  and  that  dear  woman,  since  the  communication  made 
by  Skepsey  in  the  town  of  Dreux,  nightly  the  dividing 
spirit  of  Mrs.  Burman  lay :  cold  as  a  corpse.  They  both 
felt  her  there.  They  kissed  coldly,  pressed  a  hand,  said 
good-night. 

Next  afternoon  the  announcement  by  Skepsey  of  the 
Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby,  surprised  Victor's  eyebrows  at 
least,  and  caused  him  genially  to  review  the  visit  of  Lady 
Grace. 

Whether  or  not  Colney  Durance  drew  his  description  of 
a  sunken  nobility  from  the  "  sick  falcon  "  distinguishing  the 
handsome  features  of  Mr.  Sowerby,  that  beaked  invalid 
was  particularly  noticeable  to  Victor  during  the  statement 
of  his  case,  although  the  young  gentleman  was  far  from 
being  one,  in  Colney's  words,  to  enliven  the  condition  of 
domestic  fowl  with  an  hereditary  turn  for  "preying;" 
eminently  the  reverse;  he  was  of  good  moral  repute,  a 
worker,  a  commendable  citizen.  But  there  was  the  obliga- 
tion upon  him  to  speak  ■ —  it  is  expected  in  such  cases ,  if 
only  as  a  formality  —  of  his  "  love :  "  hard  to  do  even  in 
view  and  near  to  the  damsel's  reddening  cheeks :  it  per- 
plexed him.  He  dropped  a  veil  on  the  bashful  topic;  his 
tone  was  the  same  as  when  he  reverted  to  the  material 
points;  his  present  income,  his  position  in  the  great  Bank 
of  Shotts  &  Co.,  his  prospects,  the  health  of  the  heir  to  the 
Cantor  earldom.  He  considered  that  he  spoke  to  a  mem- 
ber of  the  City  merchants,  whose  preference  for  the  plain 
positive,  upon  the  question  of  an  alliance  between  families 


SUITOES  FOR  THE  HAND  OF  NEST  A  YlCTORlA      167 

by  marriage,  lends  them  for  once  a  resemblance  to  lords. 
When  a  jjerson  is  not  read  by  character,  the  position  or 
profession  is  called  on  to  supply  raised  print  for  the 
finger-ends  to  spell. 

Hard  on  poor  Fredi!  was  Victor's  thought  behind  the 
smile  he  bent  on  this  bald  Cupid.  She  deserved  a  more 
poetical  lover !  His  paternal  sympathies  for  the  girl  be- 
sought in  love,  revived  his  past  feelings  as  a  wooer;  noth- 
ing but  a  dread  of  the  influence  of  Mr.  Barmby's  toned 
eloquence  upon  the  girl,  after  her  listening  to  Dudley 
Sowerby's  addresses,  checked  his  contempt  for  the  latter. 
He  could  not  despise  the  suitor  he  sided  with  against 
another  and  seemingly  now  a  more  dangerous.  Unable 
quite  to  repress  the  sentiment,  he  proceeded  immediately 
to  put  it  to  his  uses.  For  we  have  no  need  to  be  scrupu- 
lously formal  and  precise  in  the  exposition  of  circum- 
stances to  a  fellow  who  may  thank  the  stars  if  such  a  girl 
condescends  to  give  him  a  hearing.  He  had  this  idea 
through  the  conception  of  his  girl's  generosity.  And 
furthermore,  the  cognizant  eye  of  a  Lucretian  Alma  Mater 
having  seat  so  strongly  in  Victor,  demanded  as  a  right  an 
effusion  of  the  promising  amorous  graces  on  the  part  of 
the  acceptable  applicant  to  the  post  of  husband  of  that 
peerless.  These  being  absent,  evidently  non-existent,  it 
seemed  sufficient  for  the  present,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
young  gentleman,  to  capitulate  the  few  material  matters 
briefly. 

They  were  dotted  along  with  a  fine  disregard  of  the 
stateliness  of  the  sum  to  be  settled  on  Nesta  Victoria,  and 
with  a  distant  but  burning  wish  all  the  while,  that  the 
suitor  had  been  one  to  touch  his  heart  and  open  it,  inspir- 
iting it  —  as  could  have  been  done  —  to  disclose  for  good 
and  all  the  things  utterable.  Victor  loved  clear  honesty, 
as  he  loved  light :  and  though  he  hated  to  be  accused  of 
not  showing  a  clean  face  in  the  light,  he  would  have  been 
moved  and  lifted  to  confess  to  a  spot  by  the  touch  at  his 
heart.  Dudley  Sowerby's  deficiencies,  however,  were 
outweighed  by  the  palpable  advantages  of  his  birth,  his 
prospects,  and  his  good  repute  for  conduct;  add  thereto 
his  gentlemanly  manners.  Victor  sighed  again  over  his 
poor  Fredi;  and  in  telling  Mr.  Sowerby  that  the  choice 


168  ONE  OF  OUR  COKQTJEEOES 

must  be  left  to  her,  he  had  the  regrets  of  a  man  aware  of 
his  persuasive  arts  and  how  they  would  be  used,  to  think 
that  he  was  actually  making  the  choice. 

Observe  how  fatefully  he  who  has  a  scheme  is  the  engine 
of  it;  he  is  no  longer  the  man  of  his  tastes  or  of  his  prin- 
ciples; he  is  on  a  line  of  rails  for  a  terminus;  and  he  may 
cast  languishing  eyes  across  waysides  to  right  and  left, 
he  has  doomed  himself  to  proceed,  with  a  self-devouring 
hunger  for  the  half  desired;  probably  manhood  gone  at 
the  embrace  of  it.  This  may  be  or  not,  but  Nature  has 
decreed  to  him  the  forfeit  of  pleasure.  She  bids  us  count 
the  passage  of  a  sober  day  for  the  service  of  the  morrow; 
that  is  her  system ;  and  she  would  have  us  adopt  it,  to  keep 
in  us  the  keen  edge  for  cutting,  which  is  the  guarantee  of 
enjoyment:  doing  otherwise,  we  lose  ourselves  in  one  or 
other  of  the  furious  matrix  instincts ;  we  are  blunt  to  all 
else. 

Young  Dudley  fully  agreed  that  the  choice  must  be  with 
Miss  Eadnor;  he  alluded  to  her  virtues,  her  accomplish- 
ments. He  was  waxing  to  fervidness.  He  said  he  must 
expect  competitors;  adding,  on  a  start,  that  he  was  to 
say,  from  his  mother,  she,  in  the  case  of  an  intention  to 
present  Miss  Kadnor  at  Court.  .  .  . 

Victor  waved  hand  for  a  finish,  looking  as  though  his 
head  had  come  out  of  hot  water.  He  sacrificed  Royalty  to 
his  necessities,  under  a  kind  of  sneer  at  its  functions: 
"  Court !  my  girl  ?  But  the  arduous  duties  are  over  for  the 
season.  We  are  a  democratic  people  retaining  the  seduc- 
tions of  monarchy,  as  a  friend  says ;  and  of  course  a  girl 
may  like  to  count  among  the  flowers  of  the  kingdom  for  a 
day,  in  the  list  of  Court  presentations;  no  harm.  Only 
there  's  plenty  of  time  .  .  .  very  young  girls  have  their 
heads  turned  —  though  I  don't  say,  don't  imagine,  my  girl 
would.     By  and  by  perhaps." 

Dudley  was  ushered  into  Mr.  Inchling's  room  and  intro- 
duced to  the  figure-head  of  the  Firm  of  Inchling,  Penner- 
gate,  and  Radnor:  a  respectable  City  merchant  indeed, 
whom  Dudley  could  read-off  in  a  glimpse  of  the  downright 
contrast  to  his  partner.  He  had  heard  casual  remarks  on 
the  respectable  City  of  London  merchant  from  Colney 
Durance.     A  short  analytical  gaze  at  him,  helped  to  an 


SiriTOES  FOR  THE  HAND  OF  NESTA  VICTORIA      169 

estimate  of  the  powers  of  the  man  who  kept  him  up.  Mr. 
Inchling  was  a  florid  City-feaster,  descendant  of  a  line  of 
City  merchants,  having  features  for  a  wife  to  identify ;  as 
drovers,  they  tell  us,  can  single  one  from  another  of  their 
round-bellied  beasts.  Formerly  the  leader  of  the  Eirm, 
he  was  now,  after  dreary  fits  of  restiveness,  kickings,  false 
prophecies  of  ruin,  Victor's  obedient  cart-horse.  He 
sighed  in  set  terms  for  the  old  days  of  the  Firm,  when, 
like  trouts  in  the  current,  the  Firm  had  only  to  gape  for 
shoals  of  good  things  to  fatten  it :  a  tale  of  English  pros- 
perity in  quiescence;  narrated  inter jectorily  among  the 
by-ways  of  the  City,  and  wanting  only  metre  to  make  it 
our  national  Poem. 

Mr.  Inchling  did  not  deny  that  grand  mangers  of  golden 
oats  were  still  somehow  constantly  allotted  to  him.  His 
wife  believed  in  Victor,  and  deemed  the  loss  of  the  balanc- 
ing Pennergate  a  gain.  Since  that  lamentable  loss,  Mr. 
Inchling,  under  the  irony  of  circumstances  the  Tory  of 
Commerce,  had  trotted  and  gallopped  whither  driven, 
racing  like  mad  against  his  will  and  the  rival  nations  now 
in  the  field  to  force  the  pace;  a  name  for  enterprise;  the 
close  commercial  connection  of  a  man  who  speculated  — 
who,  to  put  it  plainly,  lived  on  his  wits;  hurried  onward 
and  onward;  always  doubting,  munching,  grumbling  at 
satisfaction,  in  perplexity  of  the  gratitude  which  is  appre- 
hensive of  black  Nemesis  at  a  turn  of  the  road,  to  con- 
found so  wild  a  whip  as  Victor  Radnor.  He  had  never 
forgiven  the  youth's  venture  in  India  of  an  enormous  pur- 
chase of  Cotton  many  years  back,  and  which  he  had  repu- 
diated, though  not  his  share  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
realized  before  the  refusal  to  ratify  the  bargain  had  come 
to  Victor.  Mr.  Inchling  dated  his  first  indigestion  from 
that  disquieting  period.  He  assented  to  the  praise  of 
Victor's  genius,  admitting  benefits;  his  heart  refused  to 
pardon,  and  consequently  his  head  w^holly  to  trust,  the 
man  who  robbed  him  of  his  quondam  comfortable  feeling 
of  security.  And  if  you  will  imagine  the  sprite  of  the 
aggregate  English  Taxpayer  personifying  Steam  as  the 
malignant  who  has  despoiled  him  of  the  blessed  Safety- 
Assurance  he  once  had  from  his  God  ISTeptune  against 
invaders,  you  will  comprehend  the  state  of  Mr.  Inchling's 


170  OKE  OF  OUR   CONQTJEEOES 

mind  in  regard  to  his  terrific  and  bountiful,  but  very  dis- 
turbing partner. 

He  thanked  heaven  to  his  wife  often,  that  he  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  North  American  or  South  American  mines 
and  pastures  or  with  South  Africa  and  gold  and  diamonds : 
and  a  wife  must  sometimes  listen,  mastering  her  inward 
comparisons.  Dr.  Schlesien  had  met  and  meditated  on 
this  example  of  the  island  energy.  Mr.  Inchling  was  not 
permitted  by  his  wife  to  be  much  the  guest  of  the  Kadnor 
household,  because  of  the  frequent  meeting  there  with 
Colney  Durance ;  Colney 's  humour  for  satire  being  instantly 
in  bristle  at  sight  of  his  representative  of  English  City 
merchants:  "over  whom,"  as  he  wrote  of  the  venerable 
body,  "the  disciplined  and  instructed  Germans  not  devi- 
ously march ;  whom  acute  and  adventurous  Americans,  with 
half  a  cock  of  the  eye  in  passing,  compassionately  out- 
strip." He  and  Dr.  Schlesien  agreed  upon  Mr.  Inchling. 
Meantime  the  latter  gentleman  did  his  part  at  the  tables 
of  the  wealthier  City  Companies,  and  retained  his  appear- 
ance of  health;  he  was  beginning  to  think,  upon  a  calcula- 
tion of  the  increased  treasures  of  those  Companies  and  the 
country,  that  we,  the  Taxpayer,  ought  not  to  leave  it  alto- 
gether to  Providence  to  defend  them;  notwithstanding  the 
watchful  care  of  us  hitherto  shown  by  our  briny  Provi- 
dence, to  save  us  from  anxiety  and  expense.  But  there 
are,  he  said,  "  difficulties ; "  and  the  very  word  could  stop 
him,  as  commonly  when  our  difficulty  lies  in  the  exercise 
of  thinking. 

Victor's  African  room,  containing  large  wall-maps  of 
auriferous  regions,  was  inspected;  and  another,  where 
clerks  were  busy  over  miscellaneous  Continents.  Dudley 
Sowerby  hoped  he  might  win  the  maiden. 

He  and  Victor  walked  in  company  Westward.  The  shop 
of  Boyle  and  Luckwort,  chemists,  was  not  passed  on  this 
occasion.  Dudley  grieved  that  he  had  to  be  absent  from 
the  next  Concert  for  practice ,  owing  to  his  engagement  to 
his  mother  to  go  down  to  the  family  seat  near  Tunbridge 
Wells.  Victor  mentioned  his  relatives,  the  Duvidney 
maiden  ladies,  residing  near  the  Wells.  They  measured 
the  distance  between  Cronidge  and  Moorsedge,  the  two 
houses,  as  for  half  an  hour  on  horseback. 


OF  NATURE  AND  CIECtJMSTANCE  171 

Nesta  told  her  father  at  home  that  the  pair  of  them  had 
been  observed  confidentially  arm  in  arm,  and  conversing 
so  profoundly. 

"  Who,  do  you  think,  was  the  topic  ?  "  Victor  asked. 

She  would  not  chase  the  little  blue  butterfly  of  a  guess. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

TREATS  OF  NATURE  AND  CIRCUMSTANCE  AND  THE  DISSEN- 
SION BETWEEN  THEM  AND  OF  A  SATIRIST's  MALIGNITY 
IN   THE   DIRECTION    OF    HIS    COUNTRY 

There  is  at  times  in  the  hearts  of  all  men  of  active  life 
a  vivid  wild  moment  or  two  of  dramatic  dialogue  between 
the  veteran  antagonists,  ]N"ature  and  Circumstance,  when 
they,  whose  business  it  should  be  to  be  joyfully  one, 
furiously  split;  and  the  Dame  is  up  with  her  shrillest 
querulousness  to  inquire  of  her  offspring,  for  the  distinct 
original  motive  of  his  conduct.  Why  did  he  bring  her  to 
such  a  pass !  And  what  is  the  gain  ?  If  he  be  not  an 
alienated  issue  of  the  great  Mother,  he  will  strongly  incline 
to  her  view,  that  he  put  himself  into  harness  to  join  with 
a  machine  going  the  dead  contrary  way  of  her  welfare ;  and 
thereby  wrote  himself  donkey,  for  his  present  reading. 
Soldiers,  heroes,  even  the  braided,  even  the  wearers  of  the 
gay  cock's  feathers,  who  get  the  honours  and  the  pocket- 
pieces,  know  the  moment  of  her  electrical  eloquence. 
They  have  no  answer  for  her,  save  an  index  at  the 
machine  pushing  them  on  yet  farther  under  the  enemy's 
line  of  fire,  where  they  pluck  the  golden  wreath  or  the 
livid,  and  in  either  case  listen  no  more.  They  glorify  her 
topping  wisdom  while  on  the  march  to  confound  it.  She 
is  wise  in  her  way.  But  it  is  asked  by  the  disputant,  If 
we  had  followed  her  exclusively,  how  far  should  we  have 
travelled  from  our  starting-point  ?  We  of  the  world  and 
its  prizes  and  duties  must  do  her  an  injury  to  make  her 
tongue  musical  to  us,  and  her  argument  worthy  of  atten- 
tion.    So  it  seems.     How  to  keep  the  proper  balance  be- 


172  ONE  OF  OtTR  CONQUEEOBS 

tween  those  two  testy  old  wranglers,  that  rarely  pull  the 
right  way  together,  is  as  much  the  task  for  men  in  the 
grip  of  the  world,  as  for  the  wanton  youthful  fry  under 
dominion  of  their  instincts;  and  probably,  when  it  is  done, 
man  will  have  attained  the  golden  age  of  his  retirement 
from  service. 

Why  be  scheming?  Victor  asked.  Unlike  the  gallant 
soldiery,  his  question  was  raised  in  the  blush  of  a  success, 
^from  an  examination  of  the  quality  of  the  thing  won; 
although  it  had  not  changed  since  it  was  first  coveted;  it 
was  demonstrably  the  same :  and  an  astonishing  dry  stick 
he  held,  as  a  reward  for  perpetual  agitations  and  perver- 
sions of  his  natural  tastes.  Here  was  a  Dudley  Sowerby, 
the  direct  issue  of  the  conception  of  Lakelands ;  if  indeed 
they  were  not  conceived  together  in  one;  and  the  young 
gentleman  had  moral  character,  good  citizen  substance,  and 
station,  rank,  prospect  of  a  title ;  and  the  grasp  of  him  was 
firm.  Yet  so  far  was  it  from  hearty,  that  when  hearing 
a  professed  satirist  like  Colney  Durance  remark  on  the 
decorous  manner  of  Dudley's  transparent  courtship  of  the 
girl,  under  his  look  of  an  awakened  approval  of  himself, 
that  he  appeared  to  be  asking  everybody :  —  Do  you  not 
think  I  bid  fair  for  an  excellent  father  of  Philistines  ?  — 
Victor  had  a  nip  of  spite  at  the  thought  of  Dudley's  drag- 
ging him  bodily  to  be  the  grandfather.  Poor  Predi,  too! 
—  necessarily  the  mother :  condemned  by  her  hard  fate  to 
feel  proud  of  Philistine  babies !  Though  women  soon  get 
reconciled  to  it!  Or  do  they?  They  did  once.  What  if 
his  Fredi  turned  out  one  of  the  modern  young  women,  who 
have  drunk  of  ideas?  He  caught  himself  speculating  on 
that,  as  on  a  danger.  The  alliance  with  Dudley  really 
seemed  to  set  him  facing  backward. 

Colney  might  not  have  been  under  prompting  of  Nataly 
when  he  derided  Dudley ;  but  Victor  was  at  war  with  the 
picture  of  her,  in  her  compression  of  a  cruel  laugh,  while 
her  eyelids  were  hard  shut,  as  if  to  exclude  the  young 
patriarch  of  Philistines'  ridiculous  image. 

He  hearkened  to  the  Nature  interrogating  him,  why 
had  he  stepped  on  a  path  to  put  division  between  himself 
and  his  beloved  ? — the  smallest  of  gaps;  and  still  the  very- 
smallest  between  nuptial  lovers  is  a  division  —  and  that 


OI'  NATURE  AISD  CIRCUMSTANCE  173 

may  become  a  mortal  wound  to  their  one  life.  Why  had 
he  roused  a  slumbering  world  ?  Glimpses  of  the  world's 
nurse-like,  old-fashioned,  mother-nightcap  benevolence  to 
its  kicking  favourites;  its  long-suffering  tolerance  for 
the  heroic  breakers  of  its  rough-cast  laws,  while  the  decent 
curtain  continues  dropped,  or  lifted  only  ankle-high;  to- 
gether with  many  scenes,  lively  suggestions,  of  the  choice 
of  ways  he  liked  best,  told  of  things,  which  were  better 
things,  incomprehensibly  forfeited.  So  that  the  plain 
sense  of  value  insisted  on  more  than  one  weighing  of  the 
gain  in  hand :  a  dubious  measure. 

He  was  as  little  disposed  to  reject  it  as  to  stop  his  course 
at  a  goal  of  his  aim.  Nevertheless,  a  gain  thus  poorly 
estimated,  could  not  command  him  to  do  a  deed  of  humili- 
ation on  account  of  it.  The  speaking  to  this  dry  young 
Dudley  was  not  imperative  at  present.  A  word  would  do 
in  the  day  to  come. 

Nataly  was  busy  with  her  purchases  of  furniture,  and 
the  practice  for  the  great  August  Concert.  He  dealt  her 
liberal  encouragements,  up  to  the  verge  of  Dr.  Themison's 
latest  hummed  words  touching  Mrs.  Burman,  from  which 
he  jumped  in  alarm  lest  he  should  paralyze  her  again: 
the  dear  souPs  dreaded  aspect  of  an  earthy  pallor  was 
a  spectre  behind  her  cheeks,  ready  to  rush  forth.  Fenellan 
brought  Carling  to  dine  with  him;  and  Themison  was  con- 
firmed by  Carling,  with  incidents  in  proof;  Carling  by 
Jarniman,  also  with  incidents ;  one  very  odd  one  —  or  so 
it  seemed,  in  the  fury  of  the  first  savour  of  it :  —  she  in- 
formed Jarniman,  Skepsey  said  his  friend  Jarniman  said, 
that  she  had  dreamed  of  making  her  appearance  to  him  on 
the  night  of  the  23rd  August,  and  of  setting  the  date  on 
the  calendar  over  his  desk,  when  she  entered  his  room: 
"Sitting-room,  not  bedroom;  she  was  always  quite  the 
lady,"  Skepsey  reported  his  Jarniman.  Mrs.  Burman,  as 
a  ghost,  would  respect  herself;  she  would  keep  to  her 
character.  Jarniman  quite  expected  the  dream  to  be  veri- 
fied; she  was  a  woman  of  her  word:  he  believed  she  had 
received  a  revelation  of  the  approaching  fact :  he  was  pre- 
paring for  the  scene. 

Victor  had  to  keep  silent  and  discourse  of  general  pros- 
perity.   His  happy  vivaciousness  assisted  him  to  feel  it  by 


174  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

day.  Nataly  heard  him  at  night,  on  a  moan :  "  Poor  soul ! " 
and  loudly  once  while  performing  an  abrupt  demi-vaulfc 
from  back  to  side  :  "  Perhaps  now !  'Mn  a  voice  through 
doors.     She  schooled  herself  to  breathe  equably. 

Not  being  allowed  to  impart  the  distressing  dose  of 
comfort  he  was  charged  with,  he  swallowed  it  himself ;  and 
these  were  the  consequences.  And  an  uneasy  sleep  was 
traditionally  a  matter  for  grave  debate  in  the  Eadnor  family. 
The  Duvidney  ladies,  Dorothea  and  Virginia,  would  have 
cited  ancestral  names,  showing  it  to  be  the  worst  of  iutima-' 
tions.  At  night,  lying  on  his  back  beneath  a  weight  of 
darkness,  one  heavily  craped  figure,  distinguishable  through 
the  gloom,  as  a  blot  on  a  black  pad,  accused  the  answering 
darkness  within  him,  until  his  mind  was  dragged  to  go 
through  the  whole  case  by  morning  light ;  and  the  com- 
passionate man  appealed  to  common  sense,  to  stamp  and 
pass  his  delectable  sophistries ;  as,  that  it  was  his  intense 
humaneness,  which  exposed  him  to  an  accusation  of  in- 
humanity :  his  prayer  for  the  truly  best  to  happen,  which 
anticipated  Mrs.  Burman's  expiry.  They  were  simple 
sophistries,  fabricated  to  suit  his  needs,  readily  taking  and 
bearing  the  imprimatur  of  common  sense.  They  refreshed 
him,  as  a  chemical  scent  a  crowded  room. 

All  because  he  could  not  open  his  breast  to  Nataly,  by 
reason  of  her  feebleness ;  or  feel  enthusiasm  in  the  posses- 
sion of  young  Dudley !  A  dry  stick  indeed  beside  him  on 
the  walk  Westward.  Good  quality  wood,  no  doubt,  but 
dry,  varnished  for  conventional  uses.  Poor  dear  Fredi 
would  have  to  crown  it  like  the  May-day  posy  of  the  urchins 
of  Craye  Farm  and  Creckholt! 

Dudley  wished  the  great  City-merchant  to  appreciate  him 
as  a  diligent  student  of  commercial  matters :  rivalries  of 
Banks ;  Foreign  aud  Municipal  Loans,  American  Rails,  and 
Argentine;  new  Companies  of  wholesome  appearance  or 
sinister;  or  starting  with  a  dram  in  the  stomach,  or  born 
to  bleat  prostrate,  like  sheep  on  their  backs  in  a  ditch ; 
Trusts  and  Founders;  Breweries  bursting  vats  upon  the 
markets,  and  England  prone  along  the  gutters,  gobbling, 
drunk  for  shares,  and  sober  in  the  possession  of  certain  of 
them.  But  when,  as  Colney  says,  a  grateful  England  has 
conferred  the  Lordship  on  her  Brewer,  he  gratefully  hands- 


OF  NATUEE  AND  CIRCUMSTANCE  175 

over  the  establishment  to  his  country ;  and  both  may  dis- 
regard the  howls  of  a  Salvation  Army  of  shareholders. — 
Beaten  by  the  Germans  in  Brewery,  too !  Dr.  Schlesien 
has  his  right  to  crow.  We  were  ahead  of  them,  and  they 
came  and  studied  us,  and  they  studied  Chemistry  as  well ; 
while  we  went  on  down  our  happy-go-lucky  old  road ;  and 
then  had  to  hire  their  young  Professors,  and  then  to  im- 
port  their  beer. 

Rave  the  Germans  more  brains  than  we  English  ?  Vic- 
tor's blood  up  to  the  dome  of  his  cranium  knocked  the 
patriotic  negative.  But,  as  old  Colney  says  (and  bother 
him,  for  constantly  intruding ! ),  the  comfortably  successful 
have  the  habit  of  sitting,  and  that  dulls  the  brain  yet  more 
than  it  eases  the  person  :  hence  are  we  outpaced ;  we  have 
now  to  know  we  are  racing.  Victor  scored  a  mark  for  one 
of  his  projects.  A  well-conducted  Journal  of  the  sharpest 
pens  in  the  land  might,  at  a  sacrifice  of  money  grandly  sunk, 
expose  to  his  English  how  and  to  what  degree  their  sports, 
and  their  fierce  feastings,  and  their  opposition  to  ideas, 
and  their  timidity  in  regard  to  change,  and  their  execration 
of  criticism  applied  to  themselves,  and  their  unanimous 
adoption  of  it  for  a  weapon  against  others,  are  signs  of  a 
prolonged  indulgence  in  the  cushioned  seat.  Victor  saw  it. 
But  would  the  people  he  loved  ?  He  agreed  with  Colney, 
forgetting  the  satirist's  venom:  to-wit,  that  the  journalists 
should  be  close  under  their  editor's  rod  to  put  it  in  sound 
bold  English  ;  —  no  metaphors,  no  similes,  nor  flowery  in- 
substantiality :  but  honest  Saxon  manger  stuff ;  and  put  it 
repeatedly,  in  contempt  of  the  disgust  of  iteration;  hammer- 
ing so  a  soft  place  on  the  Anglican  skull,  which  is  rubbed 
in  consequence,  and  taught  at  last  through  soreness  to  re- 
flect. —  A  Journal  ?  —  with  Colney  Durance  for  Editor  ? 
—  and  called  conformably  The  Whipping-Top  ?  Why  not, 
if  it  exactly  hits  the  signification  of  the  Journal  and  that 
which  it  would  have  the  country  do  to  itself,  to  keep  it 
going  and  truly  topping  ?  For  there  is  no  vulgarity  in  a 
title  strongly  signifying  the  intent.  Victor  wrote  it  at 
night,  naming  Colney  for  Editor,  with  a  sum  of  his  money 
to  be  devoted  to  the  publication,  in  a  form  of  memorandum ; 
and  threw  it  among  the  papers  in  his  desk. 

Young  Dudley  had  a  funny  inquisitiveness  about  Dartrey 


176  ONE  OP  OUR  CONQUEROKS 

Fenellan ;  owing  to  Fredi's  reproduction  or  imitation  of  her 
mother's  romantic  sentiment  for  Dartrey,  doubtless  :  a  bit 
of  jealousy,  indicating  that  the  dry  fellow  had  his  feelings. 
Victor  touched-off  an  outline  of  Dartrey's  history  and  char- 
acter :  —  the  half-brother  of  Simeon,  considerably  younger, 
and  totally  different.  "  Dartrey's  mother  was  Lady  Char- 
lotte Kiltorne,  one  of  the  Clanconans ;  better  mother  than 
wife,  perhaps ;  and  no  reproach  on  her,  not  a  shadow  ;  only 
she  made  the  General's  Bank-notes  fly  black  paper.     And 

—  if  you're  for  heredity  —  the  queer  point  is,  that  Simeon, 
whose  mother  was  a  sober-minded  woman,  has  always  been 
the  spendthrift.  Dartrey  married  one  of  the  Hennen 
women,  all  an  odd  lot,  all  handsome.  I  met  her  once. 
Colney  said,  she  came  up  here  with  a  special  commission 
from  the  Prince  of  Darkness.  There  are  women  who  stir 
the  unholy  in  men  —  whether  they  mean  it  or  not,  you 
know." 

Dudley  pursed  to  remark,  that  he  could  not  say  he  did 
know.  And  good  for  Fredi  if  he  did  not  know,  and  had  his 
objections  to  the  knowledge  !  But  he  was  like  the  men  who 
escape  colds  by  wrapping  in  comforters  instead  of  trusting 
to  the  spin  of  the  blood. 

"  She  played  poor  Dartrey  pranks  before  he  buried  —  he 
behaved  well  to  her  ;  and  that  says  much  for  him ;  he  has  a 
devil  of  a  temper.  I  've  seen  the  blood  in  his  veins  mount 
to  cracking.  But  there 's  the  man :  because  she  was  a 
woman,  he  never  let  it  break  out  with  her.  And,  by 
heaven,  he  had  cause.  She  could  n't  be  left.  She  tricked 
him,  and  she  loved  him  —  passionately,  I  believe.  You 
don't  understand  women  loving  the  husband  they  drag 
through  the  mire  ?  " 

Dudley  did  not.     He  sharpened  his  mouth. 

"  Buried,  you  said,  sir  ?  —  a  widower  ?  " 

"I've  no  positive  information;  we  shall  hear  when  he 
comes  back,"  Victor  replied  hurriedly.  "  He  got  a  drench- 
ing of  all  the  damns  in  the  British  service  from  his  Gen- 
eralissimo one  day  at  a  Beview,  for  a  trooper's  negligence 

—  button  or  stock  missing,  or  something ;  and  off  goes 
Dartrey  to  his  hut,  and  breaks  his  sword,  and  sends  in  his 
resignation.  Good  soldier  lost.  And  I  can't  complain ;  he 
has  been  a  right-hand  man  to  me  over  in  Africa.    But  a 


OF  NATURE  AND   CIKCUIMSTANCE  177 

man  ought  to  have  some  control  of  his  temper,  especially  a 
soldier." 

Dudley  put  emphasis  into  his  acquiescence. 

'^  Worse  than  that  temper  of  Dartrey's,  he  can't  forgive 
an  injury.  He  bears  a  grudge  against  his  country.  You  've 
heard  Colney  Durance  abuse  old  England.  It's  three  parts 
factitious  —  literary  exercise.  It 's  milk  beside  the  con- 
tempt of  Dartrey's  shrug.  He  thinks  we  're  a  dead  people, 
if  a  people  ;  ^  subsisting  on  our  fat,'  as  Colney  says." 

"  I  am  not  of  opinion  that  we  show  it,"  observed  Dudley. 

"We  don't,"  Victor  agreed.  He  disrelished  his  com- 
panion's mincing  tone  of  a  monumental  security,  and 
yearned  for  Dartrey  or  Simeon  or  Colney  to  be  at  his 
elbow  rather  than  this  most  commendable  of  orderly  citi- 
zens, who  little  imagined  the  treacherous  revolt  from  him 
in  the  bosom  of  the  gentleman  cordially  signifying  full 
agreement.  But  Dudley  was  not  gifted  to  read  behind 
words  and  looks. 

They  were  in  the  Park  of  the  dwindling  press  of  car- 
riages, and  here  was  this  young  Dudley  saying,  quite  com- 
mendably:  "It's  a  pity  we  seem  to  have  no  means  of 
keeping  our  parks  select." 

Victor  flung  Simeon  Eenellan  at  him  in  thought.  He 
remembered  a  fable  of  Fenellan's,  about  a  Society  of  the 
Blest,  and  the  salt  it  was  to  them  to  discover  an  intruder 
from  below,  and  the  consequent  accelerated  measure  in 
their  hymning. 

"  Have  you  seen  anything  offensive  to  you  ?  "  he  asked. 

"One  sees  notorious  persons." 

Dudley  spoke  aloof  from  them  —  "  out  of  his  cold  attics," 
Fenellan  would  have  said. 

Victor  approved :  with  the  deadened  feeling  common  to 
us  when  first  in  sad  earnest  we  consent  to  take  life  as  it  is. 
He  perceived,  too,  the  comicality  of  his  having  to  resign 
himself  to  the  fatherly  embrace  of  goodness. 

Lakelands  had  him  fast,  and  this  young  Dudley  was  the 
kernel  of  Lakelands.  If  he  had  only  been  intellectually  a 
little  flexible  in  his  morality !  But  no ;  he  wore  it  cap  a 
pie,  like  a  mediaeval  knight  his  armour.  One  had  to  ap- 
prove. And  there  was  no  getting  away  from  him.  He 
was  good  enough  to  stay  in  town  for  the  practice  of  the 

12 


178  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUEEOKS 

opening  overture  of  the  amateurs,  and  the  flute-duet,  when 
his  family  were  looking  for  him  at  Tunbridge  Wells  ;  and 
almost  every  day  Victor  was  waylaid  by  him  at  a  corner 
of  the  Strand. 

Occasionally,  Victor  appeared  at  the  point  of  interception 
armed  with  Colney  Durance,  for  whom  he  had  called  in  the 
Temple,  bent  on  self-defence,  although  Colney  was  often  as 
bitter  to  his  taste  as  to  Dudley's.  Latterly  the  bitter  had 
become  a  tonic.  We  rejoice  in  the  presence  of  goodness, 
let  us  hope;  and  still  an  impersonation  of  conventional 
goodness  perpetually  about  us  depresses.  Dudley  drove 
him  to  Colney  for  relief.  Besides  it  pleased  Nataly  that 
he  should  be  bringing  Colney  home  ;  it  looked  to  her  as  if 
he  were  subjecting  Dudley  to  critical  inspection  before  he 
decided  a  certain  question  much,  and  foolishly,  dreaded  by 
the  dear  soul.  That  quieted  her.  And  another  thing,  she 
liked  him  to  be  with  Colney,  for  a  clog  on  him ;  as  it  were, 
a  tuning-fork  for  the  wild  airs  he  started.  A  little  pessi- 
mism, also,  she  seemed  to  like ;  probably  as  an  appeasement 
after  hearing,  and  having  to  share,  high  flights.  And  she 
was,  in  her  queer  woman's  way,  always  reassured  by  his 
endurance  of  Colney's  company :  —  she  read  it  to  mean, 
that  he  could  bear  Colney's  perusal  of  him,  and  satiric 
stings.  Victor  had  seen  these  petty  matters  among  the 
various  which  were  made  to  serve  his  double  and  treble 
purposes;  now,  thanks  to  the  operation  of  young  Dudley 
within  him,  he  felt  them.  Preferring  Fenellan's  easy 
humour  to  Colney's  acid,  he  was  nevertheless  braced  by  the 
latter^s  antidote  to  Dudley,  while  reserving  his  entire  oppo- 
sition in  the  abstract. 

For  Victor  Radnor  and  Colney  Durance  were  the  Optimist 
and  Pessimist  of  their  society.  They  might  have  headed 
those  tribes  in  the  country.  At  a  period  when  the  omnibus 
of  the  world  appears  to  its  quaint  occupants  to  be  going 
faster,  men  are  shaken  into  the  acceptation,  if  not  perform- 
ance, of  one  part  or  the  other  as  it  is  dictated  to  them  by 
their  temperaments.  Compose  the  parts,  and  you  come  nigh 
to  the  meaning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century :  the  mother  of 
these  gosling  affirmatives  and  negatives  divorced  from  har- 
mony and  awakened  by  the  slight  increase  of  incubating 
motion  to  vitality.    Victor  and  Colney  had  been  champion 


OF  NATUKE  AJND   CIRCUMSTANCE  179 

duellists  for  tlie  rosy  and  tlie  saturnine  since  the  former 
cheerfully  slaved  for  a  small  stipend  in  the  City  of  his 
affection,  and  the  latter  entered  on  an  inheritance  counted 
in  niggard  hundreds,  that  withdrew  a  briefless  barrister 
disposed  for  scholarship  from  the  forlornest  of  seats  in  the 
Courts.  They  had  foretold  of  one  another  each  the  unful- 
filled ;  each  claimed  the  actual  as  the  child  of  his  prediction. 
Victor  was  to  have  been  ruined  long  back ;  Colney  the  prey 
of  independent  bachelors.  Colney  had  escaped  his  harpy, 
and  Victor  could  be  called  a  millionaire  and  more.  Prophecy 
was  crowned  by  Colney*s  dyspepsia,  by  Victor's  ticklish 
domestic  position.  Their  pity  for  one  another,  their  warm 
regard,  was  genuine ;  only,  they  were  of  different  tempera- 
ments ;  and  we  have  to  distinguish,  that  in  many  estimable 
and  some  gifted  human  creatures,  it  is  the  quality  of  the 
blood  which  directs  the  current  of  opinion. 

Victor  played-off  Colney  upon  Dudley,  for  his  internal 
satisfaction,  and  to  lull  Nataly  and  make  her  laugh ;  but  he 
could  not,  as  she  hoped  he  was  doing,  take  Colney  into  his 
confidence ;  inasmuch  as  the  Optimist,  impelled  by  his  exu- 
berant anticipatory  trustfulness,  is  an  author,  and  does 
things ;  whereas  the  Pessimist  is  your  chaired  critic,  with 
the  delivery  of  a  censor,  generally  an  undoer  of  thipgs. 
Our  Optimy  has  his  instinct  to  tell  him  of  the  cast  of  Pes- 
simy's  countenance  at  the  confession  of  a  dilemma  —  fore- 
seen !  He  hands  himself  to  Pessimy,  as  it  were  a  sugar- 
cane, for  the  sour  brute  to  suck  the  sugar  and  whack  with 
the  wood.  But  he  cannot  perform  his  part  in  return ;  he 
gets  no  compensation  :  Pessimy  is  invulnerable.  You  waste 
your  time  in  hurling  a  common  tu-quoque,  at  one  who  hugs 
the  worst. 

The  three  walking  in  the  park,  with  their  bright  view, 
and  black  view,  and  neutral  view  of  life,  were  a  comical 
trio.  They  had  come  upon  the  days  of  the  unfanned  electric 
furnace,  proper  to  London's  early  August  when  it  is  not 
pipeing  March.  Victor  complacently  bore  heat  as  well  as 
cold :  but  young  Dudley  was  a  drought,  and  Colney  a  drug 
to  refresh  it ;  and  why  was  he  stewing  in  London  ?  It  was 
for  this  young  Dudley,  who  resembled  a  London  of  the 
sparrowy  roadways  and  wearisome  pavements  and  blocks  of 
fortress  mansions,  by  chance  a  water-cart  spirting  a  stale 


180  ONE   OF   OUE   CONQUEROES 

water:  or  a  London  of  the  farewell  dinner-parties,  where 
London's  professed  anecdotist  lays  the  dust  with  his  ten 
times  told.  Why  was  not  Nataly  relieved  of  her  dreary 
lound  of  the  purchases  of  furniture  !  They  ought  all  now 
to  be  in  Switzerland  or  Tyrol.  Nesta  had  of  late  been 
turning  over  leaves  of  an  Illustrated  book  of  Tyrol,  dear  to 
her  after  a  run  through  the  Innthal  to  the  Dolomites  one 
splendid  August;  and  she  and  Nataly  had  read  there  of 
Hofer,  Speckbacker,  Haspinger ;  and  wrath  had  filled  them 
at  the  meanness  of  the  Corsican,  who  posed  after  it  as  victim 
on  St.  Helena's  rock ;  the  scene  in  grey  dawn  on  Mantua's 
fortress-walls  blasting  him  in  the  Courts  of  History,  when 
he  strikes  for  his  pathetic  sublime. 

Victor  remembered  how  he  had  been  rhetorical,  as  the 
mouthpiece  of  his  darlings.  But  he  had  in  memory  prom- 
inently now  the  many  glorious  pictures  of  that  mountain- 
land  beckoning  to  him,  waving  him  to  fly  forth  from  the 
London  oven :  —  lo,  the  Tyrolese  limestone  crags  with  livid 
peaks  and  snow  lining  shelves  and  veins  of  the  crevices ; 
and  folds  of  pine-wood  undulations  closed  by  a  shoulder  of 
snow  large  on  the  blue  ;  and  a  dazzling  pinnacle  rising  over 
green  pasture- Alps,  the  head  of  it  shooting  aloft  as  the 
blown  billow,  high  off  a  broken  ridge,  and  wide-armed  in 
its  pure  white  shroud  beneath ;  tranced,  but  all  motion  in 
immobility,  to  the  heart  in  the  eye;  a  splendid  image  of 
striving,  up  to  crowned  victory.  And  see  the  long  valley- 
sweeps  of  the  hanging  meadows  and  maize,  and  lower  vine- 
yards and  central  tall  green  spires !  Walking  beside  young 
Dudley,  conversing,  observing  too,  Victor  followed  the 
trips  and  twists  of  a  rill,  that  was  lured  a  little  further 
down  through  scoops,  ducts,  and  scaffolded  channels  to 
serve  a  wainwright. 

He  heard  the  mountain-song  of  the  joyful  water  :  a  wren- 
robin-thrush  on  the  dance  down  of  a  faun ;  till  it  was  caught 
and  muted,  and  the  silver  foot  slid  along  the  channel,  swift 
as  moonbeams  through  a  cloud,  with  an  air  of  "  Whither 
you  will,  so  it  be  on;^'  liappy  for  service  as  in  freedom. 
Then  the  yard  of  the  inn  below,  and  the  rill-water  twirling 
rounded  through  the  trout-trough,  subdued,  still  lively  for 
its  beloved  onward :  dues  to  business,  dues  to  pleasure ;  a 
wedding  of  the  two,  and  the  wisest  on  earth :  —  eh  ?  like 


OF  NATUEE  AND  CIECmsiStAlSrCE  l81 

some  one  we  know,  and  Nataly  has  made  the  comparison. 
Fresh  foreUen  for  lunch  :  rhyming  to  Fenellan,  he  had  said 
to  her ;  and  that  recollection  struck  the  day  to  blaze ;  for 
his  friend  was  a  ruined  military  captain  living  on  a  literary 
quill  at  the  time;  and  Nataly's  tender  pleading,  ^' Could 
you  not  help  to  give  him  another  chance,  dear  Victor  ?  "  — 
signifying  her  absolute  trust  in  his  ability  to  do  that  or 
more  or  anything,  had  actually  set  him  thinking  of  the  In- 
surance Office  ;  which  he  started  to  prosperity,  and  Fen- 
ellan  in  it,  previously  an  untutored  rill  of  the  mountains,  if 
ever  was  one. 

Useless  to  be  dwelling  on  holiday  pictures :  Lakelands 
had  hold  of  him  ! 

Colney  or  somebody  says,  that  the  greater  our  successes, 
the  greater  the  slaves  we  become.  —  But  we  must  have  an 
aim,  my  friend,  and  success  must  be  the  aim  of  any  aim  !  — 
Yes,  and,  says  Colney,  you  are  to  rejoice  in  the  disappoint- 
ing miss,  which  saves  you  from  being  damned  by  your 
bullet  on  the  centre.  —  You're  dead  against  Nature,  old 
Colney.  —  That  is  to  carry  the  flag  of  Liberty.  —  By  clip- 
ping a  limb ! 

Victor  overcame  the  Pessimist  in  his  own  royal  cranium- 
Court.  He  entertained  a  pronounced  dissension  with  bach- 
elors pretending  to  independence.  It  could  not  be  argued 
publicly,  and  the  more  the  pity :  —  for  a  slight  encourage- 
ment, he  would  have  done  it ;  his  outlook  over  the  waves 
of  bachelors  and  (by  present  conditions  mostly  constrained) 
spinsters  —  and  another  outlook,  midnight  upon  Phlegethon 
to  the  thoughts  of  men,  made  him  deem  it  urgent.  And  it 
helped  the  plea  in  his  own  excuse,  as  Colney  pointed  out  to 
the  son  of  Nature.  That,  he  had  to  admit,  was  true.  He 
charged  it  upon  Mrs.  Burman,  for  twisting  the  most  un- 
selfish and  noblest  of  his  thoughts ;  and  he  promised  him- 
self it  was  to  cease  on  the  instant  when  the  circumstance, 
which  Nature  was  remiss  in  not  bringing  about  to-day  or 
to-morrow,  had  come  to  pass.  He  could  see  his  Nataly's 
pained  endurance  beneath  her  habitual  submission.  Her 
effort  was  a  poor  one,  to  conceal  her  dread  of  the  day  of  the 
gathering  at  Lakelands. 

On  the  Sunday  previous  to  the  day.  Dr.  Themison  ac- 
companied the  amateurs  by  rail  to  Wrensham,  to  hear  "  trial 


182  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

of  the  acoustics  "  of  tlie  Concert-hall.  They  were  a  goodly 
company ;  and  there  was  fun  in  the  rail  way -carriage  over 
Colney's  description  of  Fashionable  London's  vast  octopus 
Malady-monster,  who  was  letting  the  doctor  fly  to  the  tether 
of  its  longest  filament  for  an  hour,  plying  suckers  on  him 
the  while.  He  had  the  look,  to  general  perception,  of  a 
man  but  half -escaped :  and  as  when  the  notes  of  things 
taken  by  the  vision  in  front  are  being  set  down  upon  tablets 
in  the  head  behind.  Victor  observed  his  look  at  Nataly. 
The  look  was  like  a  door  aswing,  revealing  in  concealing. 
She  was  not  or  did  not  appear  struck  by  it :  perhaps,  if  ob- 
servant, she  took  it  for  a  busy  professional  gentleman's 
holiday  reckoning  of  the  hours  before  the  return  train  to 
his  harness,  and  his  arrangements  for  catching  it.  She 
was,  as  she  could  be  on  a  day  of  trial,  her  enchanting 
majestic  self  again  —  defying  suspicions.  She  was  his  true 
mate  for  breasting  a  world  honoured  in  uplifting  her. 

Her  singing  of  a  duet  with  Nesta,  called  forth  Dr.  Themi- 
son's  very  warm  applause.  He  named  the  greatest  of  con- 
traltos. Colney  did  better  service  than  Fenellan  at  the 
luncheon-table  :  he  diverted  Nataly  and  captured  Dr.  Themi- 
son's  ear  with  the  narrative  of  his  momentous  expedition  of 
European  Emissaries,  to  plead  the  cause  of  their  several 
languages  at  the  Court  of  Japan  :  a  Satiric  Serial  tale,  that 
hit  incidentally  the  follies  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  and 
intentionally,  one  had  to  think,  those  of  Old  England. 
Nesta  set  him  going.  Just  when  he  was  about  to  begin, 
she  made  her  father  laugh  by  crying  out  in  a  rapture, 
"  Oh  !  Delphica ! "  For  she  was  naughtily  aware  of  Dudley 
Sowerby's  distaste  for  the  story  and  disgust  with  the  damsel 
Delphica. 

Kesta  gave  Dr.  Themison  the  preliminary  sketch  of  the 
grand  object  of  the  expedition  :  indeed  one  of  the  eminent 
ones  of  the  world ;  matter  for  an  Epic ;  though  it  is  to  be 
feared,  that  our  part  in  it  will  not  encourage  a  Cis-Atlantic 
bard.  To  America  the  honours  from  beginning  to  end 
belong. 

So,  then,  Japan  has  decided  to  renounce  its  language,  for 
the  adoption  of  the  language  it  may  choose  among  the  fore- 
most famous  European  tongues.  Japan  becomes  the  word 
for  miraculous  transformations  of  a  whole  people  at  the 


OF  NATTJEE  AND   CIRCIIMSTANCE  183 

stroke  of  a  wand  ;  and  let  our  English  enrol  it  as  tlie  most 
precious  of  the  powerful  verbs.  An  envoy  visits  the  prin- 
cipal Seats  of  Learning  in  Europe.  He  is  of  a  gravity  to 
match  that  of  his  unexampled  and  all  but  stupefying  mission. 
A  fluent  linguist,  yet  an  Englishman,  the  slight  American 
accent  contracted  during  a  lengthened  residence  in  the  United 
States  is  no  bar  to  the  patriotism  urging  him  to  pay  his 
visit  of  exposition  and  invitation  from  the  Japanese  Court 
to  the  distinguished  Doctor  of  Divinity  Dr.  Bouthoin.  The 
renown  of  Dr.  Bouthoin  among  the  learned  of  Japan  has 
caused  the  special  invitation  to  him ;  a  scholar  endowed  by 
an  ample  knowledge  and  persuasive  eloquence  to  cite  and 
instance  as  well  as  illustrate  the  superior  advantages  to 
Japan  and  civilization  in  the  filial  embrace  of  mother 
English.  "  For  to  this  it  must  come  predestinated,"  says  the 
astonishing  applicant.  "  We  seem  to  see  a  fitness  in  it,"  says 
the  cogitative  Rev.  Doctor.  "  And  an  Island  England  in 
those  waters,  will  do  wonders  for  Commerce,"  adds  the 
former.  "  We  think  of  things  more  pregnant,"  concludes 
the  latter,  with  a  dry  gleam  of  ecclesiastical  knowingness. 
And  let  the  Editor  of  the  Review  upon  his  recent  pamphlet, 
and  let  the  prelate  reprimanding  him,  and  let  the  newspapers 
criticizing  his  pure  Saxon,  have  a  care  ! 

Funds,  universally  the  most  convincing  of  credentials,  are 
placed  at  Dr.  Bouthoin's  disposal :  only  it  is  requested,  that 
for  the  present  the  expedition  be  secret.  ^'Better  so,"  says 
pure  Saxon's  champion.  On  a  day  patented  for  secrecy,  and 
swearing-in  the  whole  American  Continent  through  the 
cables  to  keep  the  secret  by  declaring  the  patent,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Bouthoin,  accompanied  by  his  curate,  the  Rev.  Mancate 
Semhi2,ns,  stumbling  across  portmanteaux  crammed  with 
lexicons  and  dictionaries  and  other  tubes  of  the  voice  of 
Hermes,  takes  possession  of  berths  in  the  ship  Polyjpheme^ 
bound,  as  they  mutually  conceive,  for  the  biggest  adventure 
ever  embarked  on  by  a  far-thoughted,  high-thoughted, 
patriotic  pair  speaking  pure  Saxon  or  other. 

Colney,  with  apologies  to  his  hearers,  avoided  the  custom 
of  our  period  (called  the  Realistic)  to  create,  when  casual 
opportunity  offers,  a  belief  in  the  narrative  by  promoting 
nausea  in  the  audience.  He  passed  under  veil  the  Rev. 
Doctor's  acknowledgement   of  Neptune's   power,   and  the 


184  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

temporary  collapse  of  Mr.  Semhians.  Proceeding  at  once  to 
the  comments  of  these  high-class  missionaries  on  the  really 
curious  inquisitiveness  of  certain  of  the  foreign  passengers 
on  board,  he  introduced  to  them  the  indisputably  learned, 
the  very  argumentative,  crashing,  arrogant,  pedantic,  dog- 
matic, philological  German  gentleman.  Dr.  Gannius,  reeking 
of  the  Teutonic  Professor,  as  a  library  volume  of  its  leather. 
With  him  is  his  fair-haired  artless  daughter  Delphica.  An 
interesting  couple  for  the  beguilement  of  a  voyage :  she  so 
beautifully  moderates  his  irascible  incisiveness  !  Yet  there 
is  a  strange  tone  that  they  have.  What,  then,  of  the  polite, 
the  anecdotic  Gallic  M.  Palarique,  who  studiously  engages 
the  young  lady  in  colloquy  when  Mr.  Semhians  is  agitating 
outside  them  to  say  a  word  ?  What  of  that  out-pouring, 
explosive,  equally  voluble,  uncontrolled  M.  Bobinikine,  a 
Mongol  Eussian,  shaped,  featured,  hued  like  the  pot-boiled, 
round  and  tight  young  dumpling  of  our  primitive  boyhood, 
which  smokes  on  the  dish  from  the  pot?  And  what  of 
another,  hitherto  unnoticed,  whose  nose  is  of  the  hooked 
vulturine,  whose  name  transpires  as  Pisistratus  Mytharete? 
He  hears  Dr.  Bouthoin  declaim  some  lines  of  Homer,  and 
beseeches  him  for  the  designation  of  that  language.  Greek, 
is  it  ?  Greek  of  the  Asiatic  ancient  days  of  the  beginning 
of  the  poetic  chants  ?  Dr.  Gannius  crashes  cachinnation. 
Dr.  Bouthoin  caps  himself  with  the  offended  Don.  Mr. 
Semhians  opens  half  an  eye  and  a  whole  mouth.  There 
must  be  a  mystery,  these  two  exclaim  to  one  another  in 
privacy.    Delphica  draws  Mr.  Semhians  aside. 

Blushing  over  his  white  necktie,  like  the  coast  of  Labra- 
dor at  the  transient  wink  of  its  Jack-in-the-box  Apollo,  Mr. 
Semhians  faintly  tells  of  a  conversation  he  has  had  with 
the  ingenuous  fair  one  ;  and  she  ardent  as  he  for  the  thron- 
ing of  our  incomparable  Saxon  English  in  the  mouths  of 
the  races  of  mankind.  Strange  !  —  she  partly  suspects  the 
Frenchman,  the  Russian,  the  attentive  silent  Greek,  to  be 
all  of  them  bound  for  the  Court  of  Japan.  Concurrents  ? 
Can  it  be?  We  are  absolutely  to  enter  on  a  contention 
with  rivals  ?  Dr.  Bouthoin  speaks  to  Dr.  Gannius.  He  is 
astonished,  he  says ;  he  could  not  have  imagined  it  I 

"  Have  you  ever  imagined  anything  ?  '^  Dr.  Gannius  asks 
him.  Entomologist,  botanist,  palaeontologist,  philologist,  and 


OF  KATtJBE  AND   ClRCtTMSTANCE  l85 

at  sound  of  horn  a  ready  regimental  corporal,  Dr.  Gannius 
wears  good  manners  as  a  pair  of  bath-slippers,  to  rally  and 
kick  his  old  infant  of  an  Englishman ;  who,  in  awe  of  his 
later  renown  and  manifest  might,  makes  it  a  point  of  dis- 
cretion to  be  ultra-amiable  ;  for  he  certainly  is  not  in  train- 
ing, he  has  no  alliances,  and  he  must  diplomatize ;  and  the 
German  is  a  strong  one ;  a  relative  too ;  he  is  the  Saxon^s 
cousin,  to  say  the  least.  This  German  has  the  habit  of  push- 
ing past  politeness  to  carry  his  argumentative  war  into  the 
enemy's  country :  and  he  presents  on  all  sides  a  solid  ram- 
part of  recent  great  deeds  done,  and  mailed  readiness  for  the 
doing  of  more,  if  we  think  of  assailing  him  in  that  way.  We 
are  really  like  the  poor  beasts  which  have  cast  their  shells 
or  cases,  helpless  flesh  to  his  beak.     So  we  are  cousinly. 

Whether  more  amused  than  amazed,  we  know  not,  Dr. 
Gannius  hears  from  "  our  simpleton  of  the  pastures,"  as  he 
calls  the  Eev.  Doctor  to  his  daughter,  that  he  and  Mr. 
Semhians  have  absolutely  pushed  forth  upon  this  most 
mighty  of  enterprises  naked  of  any  backing  from  their 
Government !  Babes  in  the  Wood  that  they  are !  a  la  grace 
de  dieu  at  every  turn  that  cries  for  astutia,  they  show  no 
sign  or  symbol  of  English  arms  behind  them,  to  support  — 
and  with  the  grandest  of  national  prizes  in  view  !  —  the 
pleading  oration  before  the  Court  of  the  elect,  erudites,  we 
will  call  them,  of  an  intelligent,  yet  half  barbarous,  people ; 
hesitating,  these,  between  eloquence  and  rival  eloquence,  cun- 
ning and  rival  cunning.  Why,  in  such  a  case,  the  shadow- 
nimbus  of  Force  is  needed  to  decide  the  sinking  of  the  scales. 
But  have  these  English  never  read  their  Shakespeare^  that 
they  show  so  barren  an  acquaintance  with  human,  to  say 
nothing  of  semi-barbaric,  nature  ?  But  it  is  here  that  we 
Germans  prove  our  claim  to  being  the  sons  of  his  mind.  — 
Dr.  Gannius,  in  contempt,  throws  off  the  mask  :  he  also  is 
a  concurrent.  And  not  only  is  he  the  chosen  by  election  of 
the  chief  Universities  of  his  land,  he  has  behind  him,  as 
Athene  dilating  Achilles,  the  clenched  fist  of  the  Prince  of 
thunder  and  lightning  of  his  time.  German,  Japan  shall 
be !  he  publicly  swears  before  them  all.  M.  Ealarique 
damascenes  his  sharpest  smile;  M.  Bobinikine  double- 
dimples  his  puddingest;  M.  Mytharete  rolls  a  forefinger 
over  his  beak  j  Dr.  Bouthoin  enlarges  his  eye  on  a  sunny 


186  O^m  OF  OTJR   CONQtJEHOitS 

mote.  And  sucli  is  the  masterful  effect  of  a  frank  diplcK 
macy,  that  when  one  party  shows  his  hand,  the  others  find 
the  reverse  of  concealment  in  hiding  their  own. 

Br.  Bouthoin  and  Mr.  Semhians  are  compelled  to  suspect 
themselves  to  be  encompassed  with  rivals,  presumptively 
supported  by  their  Governments.  The  worthy  gentlemen 
had  hoped  to  tumble  into  good  fortune,  as  in  the  blessed 
old  English  manner.  "  It  has  even  been  thus  with  us  :  un- 
helped  we  do  it !  "  exclaims  the  Eev.  Doctor.  He  is  roused 
from  dejection  by  hearing  Mr.  Semhians  shyly  (he  has  pub- 
lished verse)  tell  of  the  fair-tressed  Delphica's  phosphorial 
enthusiasm  for  our  galaxy  of  British  Poets.  Assisted  by  Mr. 
Semhians,  he  begins  to  imagine,  that  he  has  in  the  person  of 
this  artless  devotee  an  ally,  who  will,  through  her  worship 
of  our  Poets  (by  treachery  to  her  sire  —  a  small  matter) 
sacrifice  her  guttural  tongue,  by  enabling  him  (through 
the  exercise  of  her  arts,  charms,  intrigues  —  also  a  small 
matter)  to  obtain  the  first  audience  of  the  Japanese  erudites. 
—  Delphica,  with  each  of  the  rivals  in  turn,  is  very  pretty 
Comedy.  She  is  aware  that  M.  Palarique  is  her  most  re- 
doubtable adversary,  by  the  time  that  the  vast  fleet  of  steam- 
boats (containing  newspaper  reporters)  is  beheld  from  the 
decks  of  the  Polypheme  puffing  past  Sandy  Hook. 

There  Colney  left  them,  for  the  next  instalment  of  the 
serial. 

Nesta  glanced  at  Dudley  Sowerby.  She  liked  him  for  his 
pained  frown  at  the  part  his  countrymen  were  made  to  play, 
but  did  wish  that  he  would  keep  from  expressing  it  in  a 
countenance  that  suggested  a  worried  knot ;  and  mischie- 
vously she  said :  "  Do  you  take  to  Delphica  ?  " 

He  replied,  with  an  evident  sincerity,  "  I  cannot  say  I  do." 

Had  Mr.  Semhians  been  modelled  on  him  ? 

^*  One  bets  on  the  German,  of  course  —  with  Colney 
Durance,"  Victor  said  to  Dr.  Themison,  leading  him  over 
the  grounds  of  Lakelands. 

"  In  any  case,  the  author  teaches  us  to  feel  an  interest 
in  the  rivals,  I  want  to  know  what  comes  of  it,''  said  the 
doctor. 

"  There 's  a  good  opportunity,  one  sees.  But,  mark  me, 
it  will  all  end  in  satire  upon  poor  Old  England.  According 
to  Colney,  we  excel  in  nothing." 


OF  KATXJRE  AND  CrRCUlVISTAKCE  187 

"I  do  not  think  there  is  a  country  that  could  offer  the 
entertainment  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  you  to-day." 

"Ah,  my  friend,  and  you  like  their  voices?  The  con- 
tralto ?  " 

"Exquisite." 

Dr.  Themison  had  not  spoken  the  name  of  Eadnor. 

"  Shall  we  see  you  at  our  next  Concert-evening  in  town?  " 
said  Victor ;  and  hearing  "  the  privilege  "  mentioned,  his 
sharp  bright  gaze  cleared  to  limpid.  "  You  have  seen  how 
it  stands  with  us  here  !  "  At  once  he  related  what  indeed 
Dr.  Themison  had  begun  speculatively  to  think  might  be 
the  case. 

Mrs.  Burman  Eadnor  had  dropped  words  touching  a  hus- 
band, and  of  her  desire  to  communicate  with  him,  in  the 
event  of  her  being  given  over  to  the  surgeons :  she  had  said, 
that  her  husband  was  a  greatly  gifted  man ;  setting  her 
head  in  a  compassionate  swing.  This  revelation  of  the 
husband  soon  after,  was  filling.  And  this  Mr.  Kadnor'a 
comrade's  manner  of  it,  was  winning:  a  not  too  self-justify- 
ing tone ;  not  void  of  feeling  for  the  elder  woman ;  with  a 
manly  eulogy  of  the  younger,  who  had  flung  away  the 
world  for  him  and  borne  him  their  one  dear  child.  Victor 
took  the  blame  wholly  upon  himself.  "  It  is  right  that  you 
should  know,"  he  said  to  the  doctor's  thoughtful  posture ; 
and  he  stressed  the  blame ;  and  a  flame  shot  across  his 
eyeballs.  He  brought  home  to  his  hearer  the  hurricane  of 
a  man  he  was  in  the  passion :  indicating  the  subjection  of 
such  a  temperament  as  this  Victor  Radnor's  to  trials  of  the 
moral  restraints  beyond  his  human  power. 

Dr.  Themison  said :  "  Would  you  —  we  postpone  that  as 
long  as  we  can :  but  supposing  the  poor  lady  .  .  .  ?  " 

Victor  broke  in :  "I  see  her  wish :  I  will." 

The  clash  of  his  answer  rang  beside  Dr.  Themison's 
faltering  query. 

We  are  grateful  when  spared  the  conclusion  of  a  sen- 
tence born  to  stammer.  If  for  that  only,  the  doctor  pressed 
Victor's  hand  warmly. 

"I  may,  then,  convey  some  form  of  assurance,  that  a 
request  of  the  kind  will  be  granted  ?  "  he  said. 

"  She  has  but  to  call  me  to  her,"  said  Victor,  stiffening 
his  back. 


188  ONE  OF  OtTB  CONQUERORS 

CHAPTER  XX 

THE    GREAT   ASSEMBLY   AT    LAKELANDS 

Round  tlie  neighbourhood  of  Lakelands  it  was  known  that 
the  day  of  the  great  gathering  there  had  been  authoritatively 
foretold  as  fine,  by  Mr.  Victor  Radnor ;  and  he  delivered 
his  prophecy  in  the  teeth  of  the  South-western  gale  familiar 
to  our  yachting  month ;  and  he  really  inspired  belief  or  a 
kind  of  trust ;  some  supposing  him  to  draw  from  reserves 
of  observation,  some  choosing  to  confide  in  the  singularly 
winged  sparkle  of  his  eyes.  Lady  Rodwell  Blachington 
did ;  and  young  Mrs.  Blathenoy ;  and  Mrs.  Fanning ;  they 
were  enamoured  of  it.  And  when  women  stand  for  Hope, 
and  any  worshipped  man  for  Promise,  nothing  less  than 
redoubled  confusion  of  him  dissolves  the  union.  Even 
then  they  cling  to  it  under  an  ejaculation,  that  it  might 
and  should  have  been  otherwise  ;  fancy  partly  has  it  other- 
wise, in  her  cserulean  home  above  the  weeping.  So  it  is 
good  at  all  points  to  prophesy  with  the  aspect  of  the  radiant 
day  foretold. 

A  storm,  bearing  battle  overhead,  tore  the  night  to 
pieces.  Nataly's  faith  in  the  pleasant  prognostic  wavered 
beneath  the  crashes.  She  had  not  much  power  of  heart 
to  desire  anything  save  that  which  her  bosom  disavowed. 
Uproar  rather  appeased  her,  calmness  agitated.  She 
wished  her  beloved  to  be  spared  from  a  disappointment, 
thinking  he  deserved  all  successes,  because  of  the  rigours 
inflicted  by  her  present  tonelessness  of  blood  and  being. 
Her  unresponsive  manner  with  him  was  not  due  to  lack  of 
fire  in  the  blood  or  a  loss  of  tenderness.  The  tender  feel- 
ing, under  privations  unwillingly  imposed,  though  will- 
ingly shared,  now  suffused  her  reflections,  owing  to  a 
gratitude  induced  by  a  novel  experience  of  him;  known, 
as  it  may  chance,  and  as  it  does  not  always  chance,  to  both 
sexes  in  wedded  intimacy  here  and  there ;  known  to  women 
whose  mates  are  proved  quick  to  compliance  with  delicate 
intuitions  of  their  moods  of  nature.  A  constant,  almost 
visible,  image  of  the  dark  thing  she  desired,  and  was  bound 


THE  GKEAT  ASSEMBLY  AT  LAKELANDS  189 

not  to  desire,  and  was  remorseful  for  desiring,  oppressed 
her;  a  perpetual  consequent  warfare  of  her  spirit  and  the 
nature  subject  to  the  thousand  sensational  hypocrisies 
invoked  for  concealment  of  its  reviled  brutish  baseness, 
held  the  woman  suspended  from  her  emotions.  She  coldly 
felt  that  a  caress  would  have  melted  her,  would  have  been 
the  temporary  rapture.  Coldly  she  had  the  knowledge 
that  the  considerate  withholding  of  it  helped  her  spirit 
to  escape  a  stain.  Less  coldly,  she  thanked  at  heart  her 
beloved,  for  being  a  gentleman  in  their  yoke.  It  plighted 
them  over  flesh. 

He  talked  to  her  on  the  pillow,  just  a  few  sentences; 
and,  unlike  himself,  a  word  of  City  affairs:  "That  fellow 
Blathenoy,  with  his  increasing  multitude  of  bills  at  the 
Bank:  must  watch  him  there,  sit  there  regularly.  One 
rather  likes  his  wife.  By  the  way,  if  you  see  him  near 
me  to-morrow,  praise  the  Spanish  climate;  don't  forget. 
He  heads  the  subscription  list  of  Lady  Blachington's 
Charity." 

Victor  chuckled  at  Colney's  humping  of  shoulders  and 
mouth,  while  the  tempest  seemed  echoing  a  sulphurous 
pessimist.  "If  old  Colney  had  listened  to  me,  when  India 
gave  proof  of  the  metal  and  South  Africa  began  heaving, 
he  M  have  been  a  fairly  wealthy  man  by  now  ...  ha !  it 
would  have  genialized  him.  A  man  may  be  a  curmudgeon 
with  money:  the  rule  is  for  him  to  cuddle  himself  and 
take  a  side,  instead  of  dashing  at  his  countrymen  all  round 
and  getting  hated.  Well,  Colney  popular,  can't  be  imag- 
ined; but  entertaining  guests  would  have  diluted  his  acid. 
He  has  the  six  hundred  or  so  a-year  he  started  old  bach- 
elor on;  add  his  miserable  pay  for  Essays.  Literature! 
Of  course,  he  sours.  But  don't  let  me  hear  of  bachelor 
moralists.  There  he  sits  at  his  Temple  Chambers  hatch- 
ing epigrams  .  .  .  pretends  to  have  the  office  of  critic! 
Honest  old  fellow,  as  far  as  his  condition  permits.  I  tell 
him  it  ivill  be  fine  to-morrow." 

"You  are  generally  right,  dear,"  Nataly  said. 

Her  dropping  breath  was  audible. 

Victor  smartly  commended  her  to  slumber,  with  heaven's 
blessing  on  her  and  a  dose  of  soft  nursery  prattle. 

He  squeezed  her  hand.     He  kissed  her  lips  by  day. 


190  ONE  OF  OUK  COKQUEROKS 

She  heard  him  sigh  settling  himself  into  the  breast  of 
night  for  milk  of  sleep,  like  one  of  the  world's  good 
children.  She  could  have  turned  to  him ,  to  show  him  she 
was  in  harmony  with  the  holy  night  and  loving  world,  but 
for  the  fear  founded  on  a  knowledge  of  the  man  he  was; 
it  held  her  frozen  to  the  semblance  of  a  tombstone  lady 
beside  her  lord,  in  the  aisle  where  horror  kindles  pitchy 
blackness  with  its  legions  at  one  movement.  Verily  it 
was  the  ghost  of  Mrs.  Burman  come  to  the  bed,  between 
them. 

Meanwhile  the  sun  of  Victor  Kadnor's  popularity  was 
already  up  over  the  extended  circle  likely  to  be  drenched 
by  a  falsification  of  his  daring  augury,  though  the  scud 
flew  swift,  and  the  beeches  raved,  and  the  oaks  roared  and 
snarled,  and  pine-trees  fell  their  lengths.  Fine  to- 
morrow, to  a  certainty !  he  had  been  heard  to  say.  The 
doubt  weighed  for  something;  the  balance  inclined  with 
the  gentleman  who  had  become  so  popular:  for  he  had 
done  the  trick  so  suddenly,  like  a  stroke  of  the  wizard; 
and  was  a  real  man,  not  one  of  your  spangled  zodiacs  sell- 
ing for  sixpence  and  hopping  to  a  lucky  hit,  laughed  at 
nine  times  out  of  ten.  The  reasoning  went  —  and  it  some- 
what affected  the  mansion  as  well  as  the  cottage  —  that 
if  he  had  become  popular  in  this  astonishing  fashion, 
after  making  one  of  the  biggest  fortunes  of  modern  times, 
he  might,  he  must,  have  secret  gifts.  "You  can't  foretell 
weather!"  cried  a  pothouse  sceptic.  But  the  workmen 
at  Lakelands  declared  that  he  had  foretold  it.  Sceptics 
among  the  common  folk  were  quaintly  silenced  by  other 
tales  of  him,  being  a  whiff  from  the  delirium  attending  any 
mention  of  his  name. 

How  had  he  become  suddenly  so  popular  as  to  rouse  in 
the  mind  of  Mr.  Caddis,  the  sitting  Member  for  the  divi- 
sion of  the  county  (said  to  have  the  seat  in  his  pocket),  a 
particular  inquisitiveness  to  know  the  bearing  of  his  poli- 
tics ?  Mr.  Kadnor  was  rich,  true :  but  these  are  days 
when  wealthy  men,  ambitious  of  notoriety,  do  not  always 
prove  faithful  to  their  class ;  some  of  them  are  cunning  to 
bid  for  the  suffrages  of  the  irl-esponsible,  recklessty 
enfranchised,  corruptible  masses.  Mr.  Caddis,  if  he  had 
the  seat  in  his  pocket,  had  it  from  the  support  of  a  class 


THE  GREAT  ASSEMBLY  AT  LAKELANDS  191 

trusting  him  to  support  its  interests:  he  could  count  on 
the  landowners,  on  the  clergy,  on  the  retired  or  retiring 
or  comfortably  cushioned  merchants  resident  about  Wren- 
sham,  on  the  many  obsequious  among  electoral  shopmen; 
annually  he  threw  open  his  grounds,  and  he  subscribed, 
patronized,  did  what  was  expected;  and  he  was  not  pop- 
ular ;  he  was  unpopular.  Why  ?  But  why  was  the  sun  of 
this  23rd  August,  shining  from  its  rise  royally  upon 
pacified,  enrolled  and  liveried  armies  of  cloud,  more 
agreeable  to  earth's  populations  than  his  pinched  appear- 
ance of  the  poor  mopped  red  nose  and  melancholic  rheumy 
eyelets  on  a  January  day!  Undoubtedly  Victor  Eadnor 
risked  his  repute  of  prophet.  Yet  his  popularity  would 
have  survived  the  continuance  of  the  storm  and  deluge. 
He  did  this :  —  and  the  mystery  puzzling  the  suspicious 
was  nothing  wonderful :  —  in  addition  to  a  transparent 
benevolence,  he  spread  a  sort  of  assurance  about  him,  that 
he  thought  the  better  of  the  people  for  their  thinking  well 
of  themselves.  It  came  first  from  the  workmen  at  his  house. 
"The  right  sort,  and  no  humbug:  likes  you  to  be  men." 
Such  a  report  made  tropical  soil  for  any  new  seed. 

Now,  it  is  a  postulate,  to  strengthen  all  poor  common- 
ers, that  not  even  in  comparison  with  the  highest  need 
we  be  small  unless  we  yield  to  think  it  of  ourselves.  Do 
but  stretch  a  hand  to  the  touch  of  earth  in  you,  and  you 
spring  upon  combative  manhood  again,  from  the  basis 
where  all  are  equal.  Humanity's  historians,  however, 
tell  us,  that  the  exhilaration  bringing  us  consciousness  of 
a  stature,  is  gas  wliich  too  frequently  has  to  be  adminis- 
tered. Certes  the  cocks  among  men  do  not  require  the 
process ;  they  get  it  off  the  sight  of  the  sun  arising  or  a 
simple  hen  submissive :  but  we  have  our  hibernating  bears 
among  men,  our  yoked  oxen,  cabhorses,  beaten  dogs;  we 
have  on  large  patches  of  these  Islands,  a  Saxon  population, 
much  wanting  assistance,  if  they  are  not  to  feel  themselves 
beaten,  driven,  caught  by  the  neck,  yoked  and  heavy- 
headed.  Blest,  then,  is  he  who  gives  them  a  sense  of  the 
pride  of  standing  on  legs.  Beer,  ordinarily  their  solitary 
helper  beneath  the  iron  canopy  of  wealth,  is  known  to 
them  as  a  bitter  usurer;  it  knocks  them  flat  in  their  per- 
sons and  their  fortunes,  for  the  short  spell  of  recreative 


192  ONE  OF  OUE.  CONQUEROES 

exaltation.  They  send  up  their  rough  glory  round  the  name 
of  the  gentleman  —  a  stranger,  but  their  friend :  and  never 
is  friend  to  be  thought  of  as  a  stranger  —  who  manages  to 
get  the  holiday  for  Wrensham  and  thereabout,  that  they 
may  hurl  away  for  one  jolly  day  the  old  hat  of  a  doddered 
humbleness,  and  trip  to  the  strains  of  the  internal  music 
he  has  unwound. 

Says  he:  Is  it  a  Charity  Concert?  Charity  begins  at 
home,  says  he :  and  if  I  welcome  you  gentry  on  behalf  of 
the  poor  of  London,  why,  it  follows  you  grant  me  the 
right  to  make  a  beginning  with  the  poor  of  our  parts  down 
here.  He  puts  it  so,  no  master  nor  mistress  neither  could 
refuse  him.  Why,  the  workmen  at  his  house  were  nigh 
pitching  the  contractors  all  sprawling  on  a  strike,  and 
Mr.  Radnor  takes  train,  harangues  'em  and  rubs  'em 
smooth;  ten  minutes  by  the  clock,  they  say;  and  return 
train  to  his  business  in  town;  by  reason  of  good  sense  and 
feeling,  it  was;  poor  men  don't  ask  for  more.  A  working 
man,  all  the  world  over,  asks  but  justice  and  a  little  rela^jL* 
ation  —  just  a  collar  of  fat  to  his  lean. 

Mr.  Caddis,  M.  P.,  pursuing  the  riddle  of  popularity, 
which  irritated  and  repelled  as  constantly  as  it  attracted 
him,  would  have  come  nearer  to  an  instructive  present- 
ment of  it,  by  listening  to  these  plain  fellows,  than  he 
was  in  the  line  of  equipages,  at  a  later  hour  of  the  day. 
The  remarks  of  the  comfortably  cushioned  and  wheeled, 
though  they  be  eulogistic  to  extravagance,  are  vapourish 
when  we  court  them  for  nourishment;  substantially,  they 
are  bones  to  the  cynical.  He  heard  enumerations  of  Mr. 
Radnor's  riches,  eclipsing  his  own  past  compute.  A  mer- 
chant, a  holder  of  mines.  Director  of  a  mighty  Bank,  pro- 
jector of  running  Rails,  a  princely  millionaire,  and  deter- 
mined to  be  popular  —  what  was  the  aim  of  the  man  ?  It  is 
the  curse  of  modern  times,  that  we  never  can  be  sure  of  our 
Parliamentary  seat ;  not  when  we  have  it  in  our  pockets ! 
The  Romans  have  left  us  golden  words  with  regard  to  the 
fickleness  of  the  populace;  we  have  our  Horace,  our  Juve- 
nal, we  have  our  Johnson;  and  in  this  vaunted  age  of 
reason  it  is,  that  we  surrender  ourselves  into  the  hands  of 
the  populace!  Panem  et  circenses !  Mr.  Caddis  repeated 
it,  after  his  fathers;  his  fathers  and  he  had  not  headed 


THE  GREAT  ASSE^IBLY  AT  LAKELANDS  193 

them  out  of  that  original  voracity.  There  they  were,  for 
moneyed  legislators  to  bewail  their  appetites.  And  it 
was  an  article  of  his  legislation,  to  keep  them  there. 

Pedestrian  purchasers  of  tickets  for  the  Charity  Con- 
cert, rather  openly,  in  an  envelope  of  humour,  confessed 
to  the  bait  of  the  Eadnor  bread  with  bit  of  fun.  Savoury 
rumours  were  sweeping  across  Wrensham.  Mr.  Eadnor 
had  borrowed  footmen  of  the  principal  houses  about. 
Cartloads  of  provisions  had  been  seen  to  come.  An  imme- 
diate reward  of  a  deed  of  benevolence,  is  a  thing  sensibly 
heavenly ;  and  the  five-shilling  tickets  were  paid  for  as  if 
for  a  packet  on  the  counter.  Unacquainted  with  Mr. 
Radnor,  although  the  reports  of  him  struck  a  summons  to 
their  gastric  juices,  resembling  in  its  effect  a  clamorous 
cordiality,  they  were  chilled,  on  their  steps  along  the  half- 
rolled  new  gravel-road  to  the  house,  by  seeing  three  tables 
of  prodigious  length,  where  very  evidently  a  feast  had 
raged :  one  to  plump  the  people  —  perhaps  excessively 
courted  by  great  gentlemen  of  late ;  shopkeepers,  the  vil- 
lagers, children.  These  had  been  at  it  for  two  merry 
hours.  They  had  risen.  They  were  beef  and  pudding  on 
legs;  in  some  quarters,  beer  amiably  manifest,  owing  to 
the  flourishes  of  a  military  band.  Boys,  who  had  shaken 
room  through  their  magical  young  corporations  for  fresh 
stowage,  darted  out  of  a  chasing  circle  to  the  crumbled 
cornucopia  regretfully  forsaken  fifteen  minutes  back,  and 
buried  another  tart.  Plenty  still  reigned:  it  was  the 
will  of  the  Master  that  it  should. 

We  divert  our  attention,  resigned  in  stoic  humour,  to 
the  bill  of  the  Concert  music,  handed  us  with  our  tickets 
at  the  park-gates :  we  have  no  right  to  expect  refreshment; 
we  came  for  the  music,  to  be  charitable.  Signora  Bianca 
Luciani:  of  whom  we  have  read  almost  to  the  hearing  her; 
enough  to  make  the  mistake  at  times.  The  grand  violinist 
Durandarte:  forcibly  detained  on  his  way  to  America. 
Mr.  Eadnor  sent  him  a  blank  cheque:  —  no!  —  so  Mr.  Ead- 
nor besought  him  in  person:  he  is  irresistible;  a  great 
musician  himself;  it  is  becoming  quite  the  modern  style. 
We  have  now  English  noblemen  who  play  the  horn,  the 
fife  —  the  drum,  some  say !  We  may  yet  be  Merrie  Eng- 
land again,  with  our  nobles  taking  the  lead. 

13 


194  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

England's  nobles  as  a  musical  band  at  the  head  of  a 
inarching  and  dancing  population,  pictured  happily  an  old 
Conservative  country,  that  retained  its  members  of  aristoc- 
racy in  the  foremost  places  while  subjecting  them  to  down- 
right uses.  Their  ancestors,  beholding  them  there,  would 
be  satisfied  on  the  point  of  honour ;  perhaps  enlivened  by 
hearing  them  at  fife  and  drum.  — 

But  middle-class  pedestrians,  having  paid  five  shillings 
for  a  ticket  to  hear  the  music  they  love,  and  not  having 
full  assurance  of  refreshment,  are  often,  latterly,  satirical 
upon  their  superiors;  and,  over  this  country  at  least,  re- 
quire the  refreshment,  that  the  democratic  sprouts  in  them 
may  be  reconciled  with  aristocracy.  Do  not  listen  to 
them  further  on  the  subject.  They  vote  safely  enough 
when  the  day  comes,  if  there  is  no  prseternaturally  strong 
pull  the  other  way. 

They  perceive  the  name  of  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby, 
fourth  down  the  Concert-bill ;  marked  for  a  flute-duet  with 
Mr.  Victor  Eadnor,  Miss  Nesta  Victoria  Radnor  accom- 
panying at  the  piano.  It  may  mean?  ...  do  you  want  a 
whisper  to  suggest  to  you  what  it  may  mean  ?  The 
father's  wealth  is  enormous;  the  mother  is  a  beautiful 
majestic  woman  in  her  prime.  And  see,  she  sings:  a 
wonderful  voice.  And  lower  down,  a  duet  with  her  daugh- 
ter: violins  and  clarionet;  how  funny;  something  Hun- 
garian. And  in  the  Second  Part,  Schubert's  Ave  Maria — 
Oh!  when  we  hear  that,  we  dissolve.  She  was  a  singer 
before  he  married  her,  they  say :  a  lady  by  birth :  one  of 
the  first  County  families.  But  it  was  a  gift,  and  she  could 
not  be  kept  from  it,  and  was  going,  when  they  met  —  and 
it  was  love!  the  most  perfect  duet.  For  him  she  aban- 
doned the  Stage.  You  must  remember,  that  in  their  young 
days  the  Stage  was  many  stages  beneath  the  esteem  enter- 
tained for  it  now.  Domestic  Concerts  are  got  up  to 
gratify  her;  a  Miss  Fredericks:  good  old  English  name. 
Mr.  Radnor  calls  his  daughter,  Freddy;  so  Mr.  Taplow, 
the  architect,  says.  They  are  for  modern  music  and 
ancient.  Tannhduser,  Wagner,  you  see.  Pergolese. 
Flute-duet,  Mercadante.  Here  we  have  him !  —  Duran- 
darte:  Air  Basque,  variations  —  his  own.  Again,  Sefior 
Purandarte,   Mendelssohn,      Encore  him,   and  he  plays 


THE  GKEAT  ASSE3IBLY  AT  LAKELAJO^S  lOS 

you  a  national  piece.  A  dark  little  creature  a  Life- 
guardsman  could  hold-up  on  his  outstretched  hand  for  the 
fifteen  minutes  of  the  performance;  but  he  fills  the  hall 
and  thrills  the  heart,  wafts  you  to  heaven;  and  does  it  as 
though  he  were  conversing  with  his  Andalusian  lady-love 
in  easy  whispers  about  their  mutual  passion  for  Spanish 
chocolate  all  the  while :  so  the  musical  critic  of  the  Tirra- 
Lirra  says.  Express  trains  every  half  hour  from  London; 
all  the  big  people  of  the  city.  Mr.  E,adnor  commands 
them,  like  Royalty.  Totally  different  from  that  old  figure 
of  the  wealthy  City  merchant;  young,  vigorous,  elegant, 
a  man  of  taste,  highest  culture,  speaks  the  languages  of 
Europe,  patron  of  the  Arts,  a  perfect  gentleman.  His 
mother  was  one  of  the  Montgomerys,  Mr.  Taplow  says. 
And  it  was  General  Radnor,  a  most  distinguished  officer, 
dying  knighted.  But  Mr.  Victor  Radnor  would  not  take 
less  than  a  Barony  —  and  then  only  with  descent  of  title 
to  his  daughter,  in  her  own  right. 

Mr.  Taplow  had  said  as  much  as  Victor  Radnor  chose 
that  he  should  say. 

Carriages  were  in  flow  for  an  hour :  pedestrians  formed 
a  wavy  coil.  Judgeing  by  numbers,  the  entertainment 
was  a  success;  would  the  hall  contain  them  ?  Marvels 
were  told  of  the  hall.  Every  ticket  entered  and  was 
enfolded ;  almost  all  had  a  seat.  Chivalry  stood.  It  is  a 
breeched  abstraction,  sacrificeing  voluntarily  and  genially 
to  the  Fair,  for  a  restoring  of  the  balance  between  the 
sexes,  that  the  division  of  good  things  be  rather  in  the  fair 
ones'  favour  as  they  are  to  think:  with  the  warning  to 
them,  that  the  establishment  of  their  claim  for  equality 
puts  an  end  to  the  priceless  privileges  of  petticoats. 
Women  must  be  mad,  to  provoke  such  a  warning;  and  the 
majority  of  them  submissively  show  their  good  sense. 
They  send  up  an  incense  of  perfumery,  all  the  bouquets 
of  the  chemist  commingled ;  most  nourishing  to  the  idea  of 
woman  in  the  nose  of  man.  They  are  a  forest  foliage- 
rustle  of  silks  and  muslins,  magic  interweaving,  or  the 
mythology,  if  you  prefer  it.  See,  hear,  smell,  they  are 
Juno,  Venus,  Hebe,  to  you.  We  must  have  poetry  with 
them ;  otherwise  they  are  better  in  the  kitchen.  Is  there  — 
but  there  is  notj  there  is  not  present  one  of  the  chival- 


196  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEKOES 

rous  breeched  who  could  prefer  the  shocking  emancipated 
gristly  female,  which  imposes  propriety  on  our  sensations 
and  inner  dreams,  by  petrifying  in  the  tender  bud  of 
them. 

Colonel  Corfe  is  the  man  to  hear  on  such  a  theme.  He 
is  a  colonel  of  Companies.  But  those  are  his  diversion, 
as  the  British  Army  lias  been  to  the  warrior.  Puellis 
idoneust  he  is  professedly  a  lady's  man,  a  rose-beetle,  and 
a  fine  specimen  of  a  common  kind :  and  he  has  been  that 
thing,  that  shining  delight  of  the  lap  of  ladies,  for  a  spell 
of  years,  necessitating  a  certain  sparkle  of  the  saccharine 
crystals  preserving  him,  to  conceal  the  muster.  He  has 
to  be  fascinating,  or  he  would  look  outworn,  forlorn.  On 
one  side  of  him  is  Lady  Carmine;  on  the  other.  Lady 
Swanage;  dames  embedded  in  the  blooming  maturity  of 
England's  conservatory.  Their  lords  (an  Earl,  a  Baron) 
are  of  the  lords  who  go  down  to  the  City  to  sow  a  title  for 
a  repair  of  their  poor  incomes,  and  are  to  be  commended 
for  frankly  accepting  the  new  dispensation  while  they 
retain  the  many  advantages  of  the  uncancelled  ancient. 
Thus  gently  does  a  maternal  Old  England  let  them  down. 
Projectors  of  Companies,  Directors,  Founders;  Railway 
magnates,  actual  kings  and  nobles  (though  one  cannot  yet 
persuade  old  reverence  to  do  homage  with  the  ancestral 
spontaneity  to  the  uncrowned,  uncoroneted,  people  of  our 
sphere)  ;  holders  of  Shares  in  gold  mines,  Shares  in  Afric's 
blue  mud  of  the  glittering  teeth  we  draw  for  English  beauty 
to  wear  in  the  ear,  on  the  neck,  at  the  wrist;  Bankers 
and  wives  of  Bankers.  Victor  passed  among  them,  chat- 
ting right  and  left. 

Lady  Carmine  asked  him :  "  Is  Durandarte  counted  on  ?  " 
He  answered:  "I  made  sure  of  the  Luciani." 
She  serenely  understood.  Artistes  are  licenced  people, 
with  a  Bohemian  instead  of  the  titular  glitter  for  the  be- 
wildering of  moralists;  as  paste  will  pass  for  diamonds 
where  the  mirror  is  held  up  to  Nature  by  bold  super- 
numeraries. 

He  wished  to  introduce  Kesta.     His  girl  was  on  the 
raised   orchestral  flooring.      Nataly  held   her  fast   to  a 
music-scroll. 
Mr,  Peridon,  sad  for  the  absence  and  cause  of  absence  of 


THE  GEEAT  ASSE]^IBLY  AT  LAKELANDS  19T 

Louise  de  Seilles,  —  summoned  in  the  morning  abruptly  to 
Bourges,  where  her  brother  lay  with  his  life  endangered 
by  an  accident  at  Artillery  practice,  —  Mr.  Peridon  was 
generally  conductor.  Victor  was  to  lead  the  full  force  of 
amateurs  in  the  brisk  overture  to  Zampa.  He  perceived  a 
movement  of  Nataly,  Xesta,  and  Peridon.  "They  have 
come,"  he  said;  he  jumped  on  the  orchestra  boards  and 
hastened  to  greet  the  Luciani  with  Durandarte  in  the 
retiring-room. 

His  departure  raised  the  whisper  that  he  would  wield 
the  baton.  An  opinion  was  unuttered.  His  name  for  the 
flute-duet  with  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby  had  not  provoked 
the  reserve  opinion;  it  seemed,  on  the  whole,  a  pretty  thing 
in  him  to  condescend  to  do:  the  sentiment  he  awakened 
was  not  flustered  by  it.  But  the  act  of  leading,  appeared 
as  an  official  thing  to  do.  Oar  souffle  of  sentiment  will 
be  seen  subsiding  under  a  breath,  without  a  repressive 
word  to  send  it  down.  Sir  Kodwell  Blachington  would 
have  preferred  Eadnor's  not  leading  or  playing  either. 
Colonel  Corfe  and  Mr.  Caddis  declined  to  consider  such 
conduct  English,  in  a  man  of  station  .  .  .  notwithstand- 
ing Koyal  Highnesses,  who  are  at  least  partly  English: 
partly,  we  say,  under  our  breath,  remembering  our  old 
ideal  of  an  English  gentleman,  in  opposition  to  German 
tastes.  It  is  true,  that  the  whole  country  is  changeing, 
decomposing! 

The  colonel  fished  for  Lady  Carmine's  view.  —  And  Lady 
Swanage  too  ?  Both  of  the  distinguished  ladies  approved 
of  Mr.  Radnor's  leading  —  for  a  leading  off.  Women  are 
pleased  to  see  their  favourite  in  the  place  of  prominence 
— as  long  as  Fortune  swims  him  unbuffeted,  or  one  should 
say,  unbattered,  up  the  mounting  wave.  Besides  these 
ladies  had  none  of  the  colonel's  remainder  of  juvenile  Eng- 
lish sense  of  the  manly,  his  adolescent's  intolerance  of 
the  eccentric,  suspicion  and  contempt  of  any  supposed 
affectation,  which  was  not  ostentatiously,  stalkingly  prac- 
tised to  subdue  the  sex.  And  you  cannot  wield  a  baton 
without  looking  affected.  And  at  one  of  the  Colonel's 
Clubs  in  town,  only  five  years  back,  an  English  musical 
composer,  who  had  not  then  made  his  money  —  now  by 
the  mystery  of  events  knighted!  —  had  been  (he  makes 


198  Oim  OF  OUR  CONQtJilEOB^ 

now  fifteen  thousand  a  year)  black-balled.  "Fiddler  ?  no; 
can't  admit  a  Fiddler  to  associate  on  equal  terms  with  gen- 
tlemen." Only  five  years  back:  and  at  present  we  are 
having  the  Fiddler  everywhere. 

A  sprinkling  of  the  minor  ladies  also  would  have  been 
glad  if  Mr.  Eadnor  had  kept  himself  somewhat  more 
exclusive.  Dr.  Schlesien  heard  remarks,  upon  which  his 
weighty  Teutonic  mind  sat  crushingly.  Do  these  English 
care  one  bit  for  music  ?  —  for  anything  finer  than  material 
stuffs  ?  —  what  that  man  Durance  calls,  "  their  beef,  their 
beer,  and  their  pew  in  eternity ''  ?  His  wrath  at  their 
babble  and  petty  brabble  doubted  that  they  did. 

But  they  do.  Art  has  a  hold  of  them.  They  pay  for  it; 
and  the  thing  purchased  grapples.  It  will  get  to  their 
bosoms  to  breathe  from  them  in  time:  entirely  overcoming 
the  taste  for  feudalism,  which  still  a  little  objects  to  see 
their  born  gentleman  acting  as  leader  of  musicians.  A 
people  of  slow  movement,  developing  tardily,  their  country 
is  wanting  in  the  distincter  features,  from  being  always  in 
the  transitional  state,  like  certain  sea-fish  rolling  head 
over  —  you  know  not  head  from  tail.  Without  the  Welsh, 
Irish,  Scot,  in  their  composition,  there  would  not  be  much 
of  the  yeasty  ferment :  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
Welsh,  Irish,  Scot,  are  now  largely  of  their  numbers;  and 
the  taste  for  elegance,  and  for  spiritual  utterance,  for  Song, 
nay,  for  Ideas,  is  there  among  them,  though  it  does  not 
everywhere  cover  a  rocky  surface  to  bewitch  the  eyes  of 
aliens ;  —  like  Louise  de  Seilles  and  Dr.  Schlesien,  for  ex- 
ample ;  aliens  having  no  hostile  disposition  toward  the  peo- 
ple they  were  compelled  to  criticize ;  honourably  granting, 
that  this  people  has  a  great  history.  Even  such  has  the 
Lion,  with  Homer  for  the  transcriber  of  his  deeds.  But 
the  gentle  aliens  would  image  our  emergence  from  wild- 
ness  as  the  unsocial  spectacle  presented  by  the  drear 
menagerie  Lion,  alone  or  mated;  with  hardly  an  animated 
moment  save  when  the  raw  red  joint  is  beneath  his  paw, 
reminding  him  of  the  desert's  pasture. 

Nevertheless,  where  Strength  is,  there  is  hope :  —  it  may 
be  said  more  truly  than  of  the  breath  of  Life ;  which  is 
perhaps  but  the  bucket  of  breath,  muddy  with  the  sedi- 
ment of  the  well :  whereas  we  have  in  Strength  a  hero,  if  a 


THE  GREAT  ASSEMBLY  AT  LAKELANDS  199 

malefactor;  whose  muscles  shall  haul  him  up  to  the  light 
he  will  prove  worthy  of,  when  that  divinity  has  shown 
him  his  uncleanness.  And  when  Strength  is  not  exercis- 
ing, you  are  sure  to  see  Satirists  jump  on  his  back. 
Dozens,  foreign  and  domestic,  are  on  the  back  of  Old  Eng- 
land; a  tribute  to  our  quality  if  at  the  same  time  an  irri- 
tating scourge.  The  domestic  are  in  excess ;  and  let  us  own 
that  their  view  of  the  potentate,  as  an  apathetic  beast  of 
power,  who  will  neither  show  the  power  nor  woo  the 
graces;  pretending  all  the  while  to  be  eminently  above 
the  beast,  and  posturing  in  an  inefficient  mimicry  of  the 
civilized,  excites  to  satire.  Colney  Durance  had  his 
excuses.  He  could  point  to  the  chief  creative  minds  of 
the  country  for  generations,  as  beginning  their  survey 
genially,  ending  venomously,  because  of  an  exasperating 
unreason  and  scum  in  the  bubble  of  the  scenes,  called 
social,  around  them.  Viola  under  his  chin,  he  gazed 
along  the  crowded  hall,  which  was  to  him  a  rich  national 
pudding  of  the  sycophants,  the  hypocrites,  the  burlies, 
the  idiots ;  dregs  of  the  depths  and  froth  of  the  surface ; 
bowing  to  one,  that  they  may  scorn  another;  instituting  a 
Charity,  for  their  poorer  fawning  fellows  to  relieve  their 
purses  and  assist  them  in  tricking  the  world  and  their 
Maker: — and  so  forth,  a  tiresome  tirade:  and  as  it  was  not 
on  his  lips  but  in  the  stomach  of  the  painful  creature,  let 
him  grind  that  hurdy-gurdy  for  himself.  His  friend 
Victor  set  it  stirring :  Victor  had  here  what  he  aimed  at ! 
How  Success  derides  Ambition!  And  for  this  he  imper- 
illed the  happiness  of  the  worthy  woman  he  loved !  Ex- 
posed her  to  our  fen -fogs  and  foul  snakes  —  of  whom  one 
or  more  might  be  in  the  assembly  now :  all  because  of  his 
insane  itch  to  be  the  bobbing  cork  on  the  wave  of  the 
minute!  Colney's  rapid  interjections  condensed  upon  the 
habitual  shrug  at  human  folly,  just  when  Victor,  fronting 
the  glassy  stare  of  Colonel  Corfe,  tapped  to  start  his 
orchestra  through  the  lively  first  bars  of  the  overture  to 
Zampa. 

We  soon  perceive  that  the  post  Mr.  Radnor  fills  he  thor- 
oughly fills,  whatever  it  may  be.  Zampa  takes  horse  from 
the  opening.  We  have  no  amateur  conductor  riding  ahead : 
violins,  'cellos,  piano,  wind-stops:  Peridon ,  Catkin,  Pemp- 


200  ONE  OF  OUK  CONQITEEORS 

ton,  Yatt,  Cormyn,  Colney,  Mrs.  Cormyn,  Dudley  Sowerby : 
they  are  spirited  on,  patted,  subdued,  muted,  raised, 
rushed  anew,  away,  held  in  hand,  in  both  hands.  Not 
earnestness  worn  as  a  cloak,  but  issuing,  we  see;  not 
simply  a  leader  of  musicians,  a  leader  of  men.  The  halo 
of  the  millionaire  behind,  assures  us  of  a  development  in 
the  character  of  England's  merchant  princes.  The  homage 
we  pay  him  flatters  us.  A  delightful  overture,  masterfully 
executed;  ended  too  soon;  except  that  the  programme 
forbids  the  ordinary  interpretation  of  prolonged  applause. 
Mr.  Radnor  is  one  of  those  who  do  everything  consum- 
mately. And  we  have  a  monition  within,  that  a  course  of 
spiritual  enjoyment  will  rouse  the  call  for  bodily  refresh- 
ment. His  genial  nod  and  laugh  and  word  of  commenda- 
tion to  his  troop  persuade  us  oddly,  we  know  not  how,  of 
provision  to  come.  At  the  door  of  the  retiring-room,  see, 
he  is  congratulated  by  Luciani  and  Durandarte.  Miss 
Priscilla  Graves  is  now  to  sing  a  Schumann.  Down  later, 
it  is  a  duet  with  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby.  We  have 
nothing  to  be  ashamed  of  in  her,  before  an  Italian  Operatic 
singer!     Ices  after  the  first  part  is  over. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

DARTREY   PENELLAN 


Had  Nataly  and  Nesta  known  who  was  outside  helping 
Skepsey  to  play  ball  with  the  boys,  they  would  not  have 
worked  through  their  share  of  the  performance  with  so 
graceful  a  composure.  Even  Simeon  Fenellan  was  unaware 
that  his  half-brother  Dartrey  had  landed  in  England. 
Dartrey  went  first  to  Victor's  office,  where  he  found  Skep- 
sey packing  the  day's  letters  and  circulars  into  the  bag  for 
the  delivery  of  them  at  Lakelands.  They  sprang  a  chatter, 
and  they  missed  the  last  of  the  express  trains :  which  did 
not  greatly  signify,  Skepsey  said,  "as  it  was  a  Concert." 
To  hear  his  hero  talk,  was  the  music  for  him;  and  he 
richly  enjoyed  the  pacing  along  the  railway-platform. 


DAETREY  FENELLAN  201 

Arrived  on  the  grounds,  they  took  opposite  sides  in  a 
game  of  rounders,  at  that  moment  tossing  heads  or  tails 
for  innings.  These  boys  were  slovenly  players,  and  were 
made  unhappy  by  Skepsey's  fussy  instructions  to  them  in 
smartness.  They  had  a  stupid  way  of  feeding  the  stick, 
and  they  ran  sprawling;  it  concerned  Great  Britain  for 
them  to  learn  how  to  use  their  legs.  It  was  pitiful  for 
the  country  to  see  how  lumpish  her  younger  children  were. 
Dartrey  knew  his  little  man  and  laughed,  after  warning 
him  that  his  English  would  want  many  lessons  before 
they  stomached  the  mixture  of  discipline  and  pleasure. 
So  it  appeared :  the  pride  of  the  boys  in  themselves,  their 
confidence,  enjoyment  of  the  game,  were  all  gone ;  and  all 
were  speedily  out  but  Skepsey ;  who  ran  for  the  rounder, 
with  his  coat  off,  sharp  as  a  porpoise,  and  would  have  got 
it,  he  had  it  in  his  grasp,  when,  at  the  jump,  just  over  the 
line  of  the  goal,  a  clever  fling,  if  ever  was,  caught  him  a 
crack  on  that  part  of  the  human  frame  where  sound  is  best 
achieved.  Then  were  these  young  lumps  transformed  to 
limber,  lither,  merry  fellows.  They  rejoiced  Skepsey^s 
heart;  they  did  everything  better,  ran  and  dodged  and 
threw  in  a  style  to  win  the  nod  from  the  future  official 
inspector  of  Games  and  Amusements  of  the  common  people; 
a  deputy  of  the  Government,  proposed  by  Skepsey  to  his 
hero  with  a  deferential  eagerness.  Dartrey  clapped  him 
on  the  shoulder,  softly  laughing. 

"  System  —  Mr.  Durance  is  right  —  they  must  have 
system,  if  they  are  to  appreciate  a  holiday, "  Skepsey  said ; 
and  he  sent  a  wretched  gaze  around,  at  the  justification  of 
some  of  the  lurid  views  of  Mr.  Durance,  in  signs  of  the 
holiday  wasted ;  —  impoverishing  the  country's  manhood: 
in  a  small  degree,  it  may  be  argued,  but  we  ask,  can  the 
country  afford  it,  while  foreign  nations  are  drilling  their 
youth,  teaching  them  to  be  ready  to  move  in  squads  or 
masses,  like  the  fist  of  a  pugilist.  Skepsey  left  it  to  his 
look  to  speak  his  thought.  He  saw  an  enemy  in  tobacco. 
The  drowsiness  of  beer  had  stretched  various  hulks  under 
trees.  Ponderous  cricket  lumbered  half-alive.  Flabby 
fun  knocked-up  a  yell.  And  it  was  rather  vexatious  to  see 
girls  dancing  in  good  time  to  the  band-music.  One  had  a 
male-partner,  who  hopped  his  loutish  burlesque  of  the 
thing  he  could  not  do. 


S02  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

Apparently,  too  certainly,  none  but  the  girls  had  a  notion 
of  orderly  muscular  exercise.  Of  what  use  are  girls! 
Girls  have  their  one  mission  on  earth;  and  let  them  be 
healthy  by  all  means,  for  the  sake  of  it ;  only,  they  should 
not  seem  to  prove  that  Old  England  is  better  represented 
on  the  female  side.  Skepsey  heard,  with  a  nip  of  spite 
at  his  bosom,  a  small  body  of  them  singing  in  chorus  as 
they  walked  in  step,  arm  in  arm,  actually  marched:  and 
to  the  rearward,  none  of  these  girls  heeding,  there  were 
the  louts  at  their  burlesque  of  jigs  and  fisticuffs !  "  Cherry 
Bipe,^^  was  the  song. 

"  It 's  delightful  to  hear  them !  "  said  Dartrey. 

Skepsey  muttered  jealously  of  their  having  been  trained. 

The  song,  which  drew  Dartrey  Fenellan  to  the  quick  of 
an  English  home,  planted  him  at  the  same  time  in  Africa 
to  hear  it.  Dewy  on  a  parched  forehead  it  fell,  England 
the  shedding  heaven. 

He  fetched  a  deep  breath,  as  of  gratitude  for  vital  re- 
freshment. He  had  his  thoughts  upon  the  training  of  our 
English  to  be  something  besides  the  machinery  of  capital- 
ists, and  upon  the  country  as  a  blessed  mother  instead  of 
the  most  capricious  of  maudlin  stepdames. 

He  flicked  his  leg  with  the  stick  he  carried,  said :  "  Your 
master's  the  man  to  make  a  change  among  them,  old 
friend!"  and  strolled  along  to  a  group  surrounding  two 
fellows  who  shammed  a  bout  at  single-stick.  Vacuity  in 
the  attack  on  either  side,  contributed  to  the  joint  success 
of  the  defence.  They  paused  under  inspection ;  and  Dar- 
trey said :  "  You  're  burning  to  give  them  a  lesson, 
Skepsey." 

Skepsey  had  no  objection  to  his  hero's  doing  so,  though 
at  his  personal  cost. 

The  sticks  were  handed  to  them;  the  crowd  increased; 
their  rounders  boys  had  spied  them  and  came  trooping  to 
the  scene.  Skepsey  was  directed  to  hit  in  earnest.  His 
defensive  attitude  flashed,  and  he  was  at  head  and  right 
and  left  leg,  and  giving  point,  recovering,  thrusting  madly, 
and  again  at  shoulder  and  thigh,  with  bravos  for  reward 
of  a  man  meaning  business ;  until  a  topper  on  his  hat,  a 
cut  over  the  right  thigh,  and  the  stick  in  his  middle-rib, 
told  the  spectators  of  a  scientific  adversary;  and   loudly 


DARTEBY  FENELLAN  203 

now  the  gentleman  was  cheered.  An  undercurrent  of 
warm  feeling  ran  for  the  plucky  little  one  at  it  hot  again 
in  spite  of  the  strokes,  and  when  he  fetched  his  master 
a  handsome  thud  across  the  shoulder,  and  the  gentleman 
gave  up  and  complimented  him,  Skepsey  had  applause. 

He  then  begged  his  hero  to  put  the  previous  couple  in 
position,  through  a  few  of  the  opening  movements.  They 
were  horribly  sheepish  at  first.  Meantime  two  boys  had 
got  hold  of  sticks,  and  both  had  gone  to  work  in  Skepsey 's 
gallant  style ;  and  soon  one  was  howling.  He  excused  him- 
self, because  of  the  funny-bone,  situated,  in  his  case, 
higher  than  usual  up  the  arm.  And  now  the  pair  of  men 
were  giving  and  taking  cuts  to  make  a  rhinoceros  caper. 

"Very  well;  begin  that  way;  try  what  you  can  bear," 
said  Dartrey. 

Skepsey  watched  them,  in  felicity  for  love  of  the  fray, 
pained  by  the  disregard  of  science. 

Comments  on  the  pretty  play,  indicating  a  reminiscent 
acquaintance  with  it,  and  the  capacity  for  critical  observa- 
tions, were  started.  Assaults,  wonderful  tricks  of  a  slash- 
ing Life-Guardsman,  one  spectator  had  witnessed  at  an 
exhibition  in  a  London  hall.  Boxing  too.  You  may  see 
displays  of  boxing  still  in  places.  How  about  a  prize- 
fight ?  —  With  money  on  it  ?  —  Eh,  but  you  don't  expect 
men  to  stand  up  to  be  knocked  into  rumpsteaks  for  noth- 
ing ?  —  No,  but  it 's  they  there  bets !  —  Right,  and  that 's  a 
game  gone  to  ruin  along  of  outsiders.  —  But  it  always  was 
and  it  always  will  be  popular  with  Englishmen! 

Great  English  names  of  young  days,  before  the  wintry 
shadow  of  the  Law  had  blighted  them,  received  their 
withered  laurels.  Emulous  boys  were  in  the  heroic  pos- 
ture. Good!  sparring  does  no  hurt:  Skepsey  seized  a 
likely  lad,  Dartrey  another.  Nature  created  the  Ring  for 
them.  Now  then,  arms  and  head  well  up,  chest  hearty, 
shoulders  down ,  out  with  the  right  fist,  just  below  the  level 
of  the  chin ;  out  with  the  left  fist  farther,  right  out,  except 
for  that  bit  of  curve;  so,  and  draw  it  slightly  back  for 
wary  —  pussy  at  the  spring.  Firm  you  stand,  feeling  the 
muscles  of  both  legs ,  left  half  a  pace  ahead,  right  planted, 
both  stringy.  None  of  your  milk-pail  looks ;  show  us  jaw, 
you  bull-dogs.     Now  then,  left  from  the  shoulder,  straight 


204  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQTTEROES 

at  right  of  head.  —  Good,  and  alacrity  called  on  vigour  in 
Skepsey's  pupil;  Dartrey's  had  the  fist  on  his  mouth  before 
he  could  parry  right  arm  up.  "  Foul  blow !  "  Dartrey  cried. 
Skepsey  vowed  to  the  contrary.  Dartrey  reiterated  his 
charge.  Skepsey  was  a  figure  of  negation,  gesticulating 
and  protesting.  Dartrey  appealed  tempestuously  to  the 
King;  Skepsey  likewise,  in  a  tone  of  injury.  He 
addressed  a  remonstrance  to  Captain  Dartrey. 

"Hang  your  captain,  sir!  I  call  you  a  coward;  come 
on,"  said  the  resolute  gentleman,  already  in  ripe  form  for 
the  attack.  His  blue  eyes  were  like  the  springing  sunrise 
over  ridges  of  the  seas;  and  Skepsey  jumped  to  his 
meaning. 

Boys  and  men  were  spectators  of  a  real  scientific  set-to, 
a  lovely  show.  They  were  half  puzzled,  it  seemed  so 
deadly.  And  the  little  one  got  in  his  blows  at  the  gentle- 
man, who  had  to  be  hopping.  Only,  the  worse  the  gentle- 
man caught  it,  the  friendlier  his  countenance  became. 
That  was  the  wonder,  and  that  gave  them  the  key.  But 
it  was  deliciously  near  to  the  real  thing. 

Dartrey  and  Skepsey  shook  hands. 

"  And  now,  you  fellows,  you  're  to  know,  that  this  is 
one  of  the  champions;  and  you  take  your  lesson  from  him 
and  thank  him,"  Dartrey  said ,  as  he  turned  on  his  heel 
to  strike  and  greet  the  flow  from  the  house. 

"Dartrey  come!"  Victor,  Fenellan,  Colney,  had  him  by 
the  hand  in  turn.  Pure  sweetness  of  suddenly  awakened 
joy  sat  in  Nataly's  eyes  as  she  swam  to  welcome  him, 
Nesta  moved  a  step,  seemed  hesitating,  and  she  tripped 
forward.     "  Dear  Captain  Dartrey ! " 

He  did  not  say :  "  But  what  a  change  in  you ! " 

"/it  is  blue-butterfly,  all  the  same,"  Nataly  spoke  to  his 
look. 

Victor  hurriedly  pronounced  the  formal  introduction 
between  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby  and  Captain  Dartrey 
Fenellan.  The  bronze  face  and  the  milky  bowed  to  one 
another  ceremoniously;  the  latter  faintly  flushing. 

"  So  here  you  are  at  last,"  Victor  said.  "  You  stay  with 
us." 

"To-morrow  or  later,  if  you  '11  have  me.  I  go  down  to 
my  people  to-night." 


DARTEEY  FENELLAN  205 

"But  you  stay  in  England  now  ?  "  Nataly's  voice  wavered 
on  the  question. 

"There's  a  chance  of  my  being  oft'  to  Upper  Burmah 
before  the  week  's  ended." 

"  Ah,  dear,  dear !  "  sighed  Fenellan ;  "  and  out  of  good 
comes  evil! — as  grandfather  Deucalion  exclaimed,  when 
he  gallantly  handed  up  his  dripping  wife  from  the  mud  of 
the  Deluge  waters.  Do  you  mean  to  be  running  and  Jew- 
ing it  on  for  ever,  with  only  a  nod  for  friends ,  Dart  ?  " 

"  Lord,  Simmy,  what  a  sound  of  home  there  is  in  your 
old  nonsense !  '^  Dartrey  said. 

His  eyes  of  strong  dark  blue  colour  and  the  foreign 
swarthiness  of  his  brows  and  cheeks  and  neck  mixed  the 
familiar  and  the  strange,  in  the  sight  of  the  women  who 
knew  him. 

The  bill-broker's  fair-tressed  young  wife  whispered  of 
cariosity  concerning  him  to  Nataly.  He  dressed  like  a 
sailor,  he  stood  like  a  soldier :  and  was  he  married  ?  Yes, 
he  was  married. 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  imagined  a  something  in  Mrs.  Radnor's 
tone.  She  could  account  for  it ;  not  by  the  ordinary  read- 
ing of  the  feminine  in  the  feminine,  but  through  a  husband 
who  professed  to  know  secrets.  She  was  young  in  years 
and  experience,  ten  months  wedded,  disappointedly  awak- 
ened, enlivened  by  the  hour,  kindled  by  a  novel  figure  of 
man,  fretful  for  a  dash  of  imprudence.  This  Mrs.  Radnor 
should  be  the  one  to  second  her  very  innocent  turn  for  a 
galopade ;  her  own  position  allowed  of  any  little  diverting 
jig  or  reel,  or  plunge  in  a  bath  —  she  required  it,  for  the 
domestic  Jacob  Blathenoy  was  a  dry  chip:  proved  such, 
without  a  day's  variation  during  the  whole  of  the  ten 
wedded  months.  Nataly  gratified  her  spoken  wish. 
Dartrey  Fenellan  bowed  to  the  lady,  and  she  withdrew 
him,  seeing  composedly  that  other  and  greater  ladies  had 
the  wish  ungratified.  Their  husbands  were  not  so  rich 
as  hers,  and  their  complexions  would  hardly  have  pleased 
the  handsome  brown-faced  ofiicer  so  well. 

Banquet,  equal  to  a  blast  of  trumpet,  was  the  detaining 
word  for  the  multitude.  It  circulated,  one  knows  not 
how.  Eloquent  as  the  whiffs  to  the  sniffs  (and  nowhere 
is  eloquence  to  match  it,  when  the  latter  are  sharpened 


206  ONE  OF   OXJR  CONQXTEROES 

from  within  to  without),  the  word  was  very  soon  over  the 
field.  Mr.  Carling  may  have  helped;  he  had  it  from 
Fenellan;  and  he  was  among  the  principal  groups,  claim- 
ing or  making  acquaintances,  as  a  lawyer  should  do.  The 
Concert  was  complimentarily  a  topic :  Durandarte  divine ! 
—  did  not  everybody  think  so  ?  Everybody  did,  in  default 
of  a  term  for  overtopping  it.  Our  language  is  poor  at 
hyperbole;  our  voices  are  stronger.  Gestures  and  heaven- 
sent eyeballs  invoke  to  display  the  ineffable.  Where  was 
Durandarte  now?  Gone;  already  gone;  off  with  the 
Luciani  for  evening  engagements ;  he  came  simply  to  oblige 
his  dear  friend  Mr.  Radnor.  Cheque  fifty  guineas :  hardly 
more  on  both  sides  than  an  exchange  of  smiles.  Ah,  these 
merchant-princes!  What  of  Mr.  Radnor's  amateur  instru- 
mentalists ?  Amateurs,  they  are  not  to  be  named :  perfect 
musicians.  Mr.  Radnor  is  the  perfection  of  a  host.  Yes, 
yes;  Mrs.  Radnor;  Miss  Radnor  too:  delicious  voices; 
but  what  is  it  about  Mr.  Radnor  so  captivating !  He  is  not 
quite  English,  yet  he  is  not  at  all  foreign.  Is  he  very 
adventurous  in  business,  as  they  say  ? 

"Soundest  head  in  the  City  of  London,"  Mr.  Blathenoy 
remarked. 

Sir  Rodwell  Blachington  gave  his  nod. 

The  crowd  interjected,  half -sighing.  We  ought  to  be 
proud  of  such  a  man !  Perhaps  we  are  a  trifle  exaggerating, 
says  its  heart.  But  that  we  are  wholly  grateful  to  him, 
is  a  distinct  conclusion.  And  he  may  be  one  of  the  great 
men  of  his  time :  he  has  a  quite  individual  style  of  dress. 

Lady  Rodwell  Blachington  observed  to  Colney  Durance  : 
"Mr.  Radnor  bids  fair  to  become  the  idol  of  the  English 
people." 

"If  he  can  prove  himself  to  be  sufficiently  the  dupe  of 
the  English  people,"  said  Colney. 

"Idol  —  dupe?"  interjected  Sir  Rodwell,  and  his  eye- 
brows fixed  at  the  perch  of  Colney 's  famous  "national  in- 
terrogation "  over  vacancy  of  understanding,  as  if  from 
the  pull  of  a  string.  He  had  his  audience  with  him;  and 
the  satirist  had  nothing  but  his  inner  gush  of  acids  at  sight 
of  a  planted  barb. 

Colney  was  asked  to  explain.  He  never  explained.  He 
performed  a  series  of  astonishing  leaps,  like  the  branchy 


DAKTREY  FENELLAN  207 

baboon  above  the  traveller's  head  in  the  tropical  forest, 
and  led  them  into  the  trap  they  assisted  him  to  prepare  for 
them.  "  No  humour,  do  you  say  ?  The  English  have  no 
humour  ?  "  a  nephew  of  Lady  Blachington's  inquired  of 
him,  with  polite  pugnacity,  and  was  cordially  assured, 
that  "he  vindicated  them." 

"  And  Altruistic  !  another  specimen  of  the  modern  coin- 
age," a  classical  Church  dignitary,  in  grammarian  disgust, 
remarked  to  a  lady,  as  they  passed. 

Colney  pricked-up  his  ears.  It  struck  him  that  he 
might  fish  for  suggestions  in  aid  of  the  Grand  Argument 
before  the  Elders  of  the  Court  of  Japan.  Dr.  Wardan, 
whose  recognition  he  could  claim,  stated  to  him,  that  the 
lady  and  he  were  enumerating  words  of  a  doubtfully  legiti- 
mate quality  now  being  inflicted  upon  the  language. 

"The  slang  from  below  is  perhaps  preferable?"  said 
Colney. 

"As  little  — less." 

"But  a  pirate-tongue,  cut-off  from  its  roots,  must  con- 
tinue to  practise  piracy,  surely,  or  else  take  re-inforcements 
in  slang,  otherwise  it  is  inexpressive  of  new  ideas." 

"Possibly  the  new  ideas  are  best  expressed  in  slang." 

**  If  insular.  They  will  consequently  be  incommunicable 
to  foreigners.  You  would,  then,  have  us  be  trading  with 
tokens  instead  of  a  precious  currency  ?  Yet  I  cannot  per- 
ceive the  advantage  of  letting  our  ideas  be  clothed  so  racy 
of  the  obscener  soil;  considering  the  pretensions  of  the 
English  language  to  become  the  universal.  If  we  refuse 
additions  from  above,  they  force  themselves  on  us  from 
below." 

Dr.  Wardan  liked  the  frame  of  the  observations,  disliked 
the  substance. 

"One  is  to  understand  that  the  English  language  has 
these  pretensions?"  he  said:  —  he  minced  in  his  manner, 
after  the  well-known  mortar-board  and  tassel  type;  the 
mouthing  of  a  petrifaction :  clearly  useless  to  the  pleadings 
of  the  patriotic  Dr.  Bouthoin  and  his  curate. 

He  gave  no  grip  to  Colney,  who  groaned  at  cheap  Don- 
nish sarcasm,  and  let  him  go,  after  dealing  him  a  hard 
pellet  or  two  in  a  cracker-covering. 

There  was  Victor  all  over  the  field  netting  his  ephemerae ! 


208  ONE  OF  OUH  CONQUEROKS 

And  he  who  feeds  on  them,  to  pay  a  price  for  their  con- 
gratulations and  flatteries,  he  is  one  of  them  himself! 

Nesta  came  tripping  from  the  Eev.  Septimus  Barmby. 
''  Dear  Mr.  Durance,  where  is  Captain  Dartrey  ?  " 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  had  just  conducted  her  husband  through 
a  crowd,  for  an  introduction  of  him  to  Captain  Dartrey. 
That  was  perceptible. 

Dudley  Sowerby  followed  Nesta  closely:  he  struck 
across  the  path  of  the  Eev.  Septimus :  again  he  had  the 
hollow  of  her  ear  at  disposal. 

"  Mr.  Eadnor  was  excellent.  He  does  everything  con- 
summately :  really,  we  are  all  sensible  of  it.  I  am.  He 
must  lead  us  in  a  symphony.  These  light  '  champagne 
overtures '  of  French  composers,  as  Mr.  Fenellan  calls 
them ,  do  not  bring  out  his  whole  ability :  —  Zamjpa^  Le 
'pre  aux-clercsj  Masaniello,  and  the  like." 

"Your  duet  together  went  well." 

"Thanks  to  you  —  to  you.     You  kept  us  together." 

"Papa  was  the  runaway  or  strain-the-leash,  if  there  was 
one." 

"  He  is  impetuous,  he  is  so  fervent.  But,  Miss  Eadnor, 
I  could  not  be  the  runaway  —  with  you  .  .  .  with  you  at 
the  piano.  Indeed,  I  .  .  .  shall  we  stroll  down  ?  I  love 
the  lake." 

"You  will  hear  the  bell  for  your  cold  dinner  very  soon." 

"  I  am  not  hungry.  I  would  so  much  rather  talk  —  hear 
you.  But  you  are  hungry?  You  have  been  singing: 
twice :  three  times !  Opera  singers,  they  say,  eat  hot  sup- 
pers; they  drink  stout.  Aud  I  never  heard  your  voice 
more  effective.  Yours  is  a  voice  that  .  .  .  something  of 
the  feeling  one  has  in  hearing  cathedral  voices:  carry 
one  up.  I  remember,  in  Dresden,  once,  a  Fraulein 
Ktlhnstreich,  a  prodigy,  very  young,  considering  her  ac- 
complishments.    But  it  was  not  the  same." 

Nesta  wondered  at  Dartrey  Fenellan  for  staying  so  long 
with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blathenoy. 

"Ah,  Mr.  Sowerby,  if  I  am  to  have  flattery,  I  cannot 
take  it  as  a  milliner's  dumb  figure  wears  the  beautiful 
dress;  I  must  point  out  my  view  of  some  of  my  merits." 

"Oh  !  do,  I  beg,  Miss  .  .  .  You  have  a  Christian  name: 
and  I  too:  and  once  .  .  .  not  Mr.  Sowerby:  yes,  it  was 
Dudley!" 


DAE,TKEY  FENELLAN  209 

"Quite  accidentally,  and  a  world  of  pardons  entreated." 

"  And  Dudley  begged  Dudley  might  be  Dudley  always !  " 

He  was  deepening  to  the  Barmby  intonation  —  appar- 
ently Cupid's;  but  a  shade  more  airily  Pagan,  not  so  fear- 
fully clerical. 

Her  father  had  withdrawn  Dartrey  Fenellan  from  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Blathenoy.  Dr.  Schlesien  was  bowing  with 
Dartrey. 

"And  if  Durandarte  would  only  —  but  you  are  one  with 
Miss  Graves  to  depreciate  my  Durandarte,  in  favour  of  the 
more  classical  Jachiuio;  whom  we  all  admire;  but  you 
shall  be  just,"  said  she,  and  she  pouted.  She  had  seen 
her  father  plant  Dartrey  Fenellan  in  the  midst  of  a  group 
of  City  gentlemen. 

Simeon  touched  among  them  to  pluck  at  his  brother. 
He  had  not  a  chance;  he  retired,  and  swam  into  the  salmon- 
net  of  seductive  Mrs.  Blatheuoy's  broad  bright  smile. 

"It's  a  matter  of  mines,  and  they're  hovering  in  the 
attitude  of  the  query,  like  corkscrews  over  a  bottle,  pro- 
foundly indifferent  to  blood-relationship ,"  he  said  to  her. 

"Pray,  stay  and  be  consoled  by  me,"  said  the  fair  young 
woman.  "  You  are  to  point  me  out  all  the  distinguished 
people.     Is  it  true,  that  your  brother  has  left  the  army  ?  " 

"  Dartrey  no  longer  wears  the  red.  Here  comes  Colonel 
Corfe,  who  does.     England  has  her  army  still! " 

"  His  wife  persuaded  him  ?  " 

"  You  see  he  is  wearing  the  black." 

"  For  her  ?  How  very  very  sad  !  Tell  me  —  what  a 
funnily  dressed  woman  meeting  that  gentleman ! " 

"Hush  —  a  friend  of  the  warrior.  Splendid  weather. 
Colonel  Corfe." 

"  Superb  toilettes ! "  The  colonel  eyed  Mrs.  Blathenoy 
dilatingly,  advanced,  bowed,  and  opened  the  siege. 

She  decided  a  calculation  upon  his  age,  made  a  wall  of  it, 
smilingly  agreed  with  his  encomium  of  the  Concert,  and 
toned  her  voice  to  Penellan's  comprehension :  "  Did  it  occur 
recently  ?  " 

"  Months  ;  in  Africa ;  I  have  n't  the  date." 

*'  Such  numbers  of  people  one  would  wish  to  know ! 
Who  are  those  ladies  holding  a  Court,  where  Mr.  Eadnor 
is?" 

14 


210  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROBS 

"Lady  Carmine,  Lady  Swanage  —  if  it  is  your  wish?'' 
interposed  the  colonel. 

She  dealt  him  a  forgiving  smile.  "  And  that  pleasant- 
looking  old  gentleman?" 

Colonel  Corf e  drew-up.  Fenellan  said  :  "  Are  we  veterans 
at  forty  or  so  ?  " 

"  Well,  it 's  the  romance,  perhaps ! "  She  raised  her 
shoulders. 

The  colonel's  intelligence  ran  a  dog's  nose  for  a  lady's 
interjections.  "  The  romance  ?  ...  at  forty,  fifty  ?  gone  ? 
Miss  Julinks,  the  great  heiress  and  a  beauty,  has  chosen  him 
over  the  heads  of  all  the  young  men  of  his  time.  Cranmer 
Lotsdale.     Most  romantic  history  ! " 

"  She's  in  love  with  that,  I  suppose.'' 

"Now  you  direct  my  attention  to  him,"  said  Fenellan, 
"  the  writing  of  the  romantic  history  has  made  the  texture 
look  a  trifle  thready.     You  have  a  terrible  eye." 

It  was  thrown  to  where  the  person  stood  who  had  first 
within  a  few  minutes  helped  her  to  form  critical  estimates 
of  men,  more  consciously  to  read  them. 

"  Your  brother  stays  in  England  ?  " 

"  The  fear  is,  that  he 's  off  again." 

"  Annoying  for  you.  If  I  had  a  brother,  I  would  not  let 
him  go." 

"  How  would  you  detain  him  ?  " 

"  Locks  and  bolts,  clock  wrong,  hands  and  arms,  kneeling 
—  the  fourth  act  of  the  Hugenots !  " 

"  He  went  by  way  of  the  window,  I  think.  But  that  was 
a  lover." 

"  Oh!  well ! "  she  flushed.  She  did  not  hear  the  neglected 
and  astonished  colonel  speak,  and  she  sought  diversion  in 
saying  to  Fenellan :  "  So  many  people  of  distinction  are 
assembled  here  to-day !  Tell  me,  who  is  that  pompous 
gentleman,  who  holds  his  arms  up  doubled,  as  he  walks  ?  " 

"Like  flappers  of  a  penguin :  and  advances  in  jerks  :  he 
is  head  of  the  great  Firm  of  Quatley  Brothers :  Sir  Abra- 
ham :  finances  or  farms  one  of  the  South  American  Ee- 
publics :  we  call  him,  Pride  of  Port.  He  consumes  it  and 
he  presents  it." 

"And  who  is  that  little  man,  who  stops  everybody  ?  "  ^ 

"People  of  distinction  indeed  I     That  little _ man -::^is 


DAETEEY   FENELLAN  211 

your  upper  lip  underrateing  him  ?  .  .  .  Wheii  a  lady's 
lip  is  erratically  disdainful,  it  suggests  a  misuse  of  a 
copious  treasury,  deserving  to  be  mulcted,  punished  —  how  ? 
—  who  can  say  ?  —  that  little  man,  now  that  little  man, 
with  a  lift  of  his  little  finger,  could  convulse  the  Bacon 
Market!" 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  shook.  Hearing  Colonel  Corfe  exclaim : 
"  Bacon  Market !  "  she  let  fly  a  peal.  Then  she  turned  to  a 
fresh  satellite,  a  round  and  a  ruddy,  "  at  her  service  ever," 
Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing,  and  repeated  Fenellan's  words.  He, 
in  unfeigned  wonderment  at  such  unsuspected  powers, 
cried :  ^^  Dear  me  ! "  and  stared  at  the  little  man,  making 
the  pretty  lady's  face  a  twinkling  dew. 

He  had  missed  the  Concert.  Was  it  first-rate  ?  Ecstasy 
answered  in  the  female  voice. 

"  Hem'd  fool  I  am  to  keep  appointments !  "  he  muttered. 

She  reproved  him  :  "Fie,  Mr.  Urmsing;  it's  the  making 
of  them,  not  the  keeping !  " 

"  Ah,  my  dear  ma'am,  if  I  'd  had  Blathenoy's  luck  when 
he  made  a  certain  appointment.  And  he  was  not  so  much 
older  than  me  ?     The  old  ones  get  the  prizes  !  " 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  prompted  Colonel  Corfe  to  laugh  in 
triumph.  The  colonel's  eyebrows  were  up  in  fixit}^  over 
sleepy  lids.  He  brightened  to  propose  the  conducting  of 
the  pretty  woman  to  the  banquet. 

"  We  shall  see  them  going  in,"  said  she.  "  Mr.  Eadnor 
has  a  French  cook,  who  does  wonders.  But  I  heard  him 
asking  for  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing.  I  'm  sure  he  expected 
The  Marigolds  at  his  Concert." 

"  Anything  to  oblige  the  company,"  said  the  rustic  ready 
chorister,  clearing  his  throat. 

The  lady's  feet  were  bent  in  the  direction  of  a  grassy 
knoll,  where  sunflowers,  tulips,  dahlias,  peonies,  of  the 
sex  eclipsed  at  a  distance  its  roses  and  lilies.  Fenellan 
saw  Dartrey,  still  a  centre  of  the  merchantmen,  strolling 
thither. 

"  And  do  you  know,  your  brother  is  good  enough  to  dine 
with  us  next  week,  Thursday,  down  here,"  she  murmured. 
*'  I  could  venture  to  command  ?  —  if  you  are  not  induced." 

"Whichever  word  applies  to  a  faithful  subject." 

"  I  do  so  wish  your  brother  had  not  left  the  army ! " 


212  ONE   OF   OUR  CONQtTEEOES 

"  You  have  one  son  of  Mars." 

Her  eyes  took  the  colonel  up  to  cast  him  down :  he  was 
not  the  antidote.  She  said  to  him :  "  Luciani's  voice  wears 
better  than  her  figure." 

The  colonel  replied :  "  I  remember,"  and  corrected  him- 
self, "at  Eton,  in  jackets:  she  was  not  so  particularly  slim; 
never  knew  how  to  dress.  You  beat  Italians  there  !  She 
moved  one  as  a  youngster." 

"  Eton  boys  are  so  susceptible !  " 

"  Why,  hulloa,  don?t  I  remember  her  coming  out !  —  and 
do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  brutally 
addressed  the  colonel,  '-  that  you  were  at  Eton  when  .  .  . 
why,  what  age  do  you  give  the  poor  woman,  then  !  "  He 
bellowed,  "  Eh  ?  "  as  it  were  a  bull  crowing. 

The  colonel  retreated  to  one  of  his  defensive  corners. 
"  I  am  not  aware  that  I  meant  to  tell  you  anything." 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  turned  square-breasted  on  Fenellan : 
"  Fellow  's  a  born  donkey ! " 

"And  the  mother  lived  ?  "  said  Fenellan. 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  puffed  with  wrath  at  the  fellow. 

Five  minutes  later,  in  the  midst  of  the  group  surrounding 
and  felicitating  Victor,  he  had  sight  of  Fenellan  conversing 
with  fair  ones,  and  it  struck  a  light  in  him ;  he  went  three 
steps  backward,  with  shouts.  "  Dam  funny  fellow  !  eh  ? 
who  is  he  ?  I  must  have  that  man  at  my  table.  Worth 
fifty  Colonel  Jackasses !  And  I  've  got  a  son  in  the 
Guards  :  and  as  much  laugh  in  him,  he 's  got,  as  a  bladder. 
But  we  '11  make  a  party,  eh,  Eadnor  ?  with  that  friend  o' 
yours.  Dam  funny  fellow  !  and  precious  little  of  it  going 
on  now  among  the  young  lot.  They  're  for  seeing  ghosts 
and  gaping  their  jaws ;  all  for  the  quavers  instead  of  the 
capers." 

He  sounded  and  thrummed  his  roguish  fling-off  for  the 
capers.  A  second  glimpse  of  Fenellan  agitated  the  anec- 
dote, as  he  called  it,  seizing  Victor's  arm,  to  have  him  out 
of  earshot  of  the  ladies.  Delivery,  not  without  its  throes, 
was  accomplished,  but  imperfectly,  owing  to^  sympathetic 
convulsions,  under  which  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing's  counte- 
nance was  crinkled  of  many  colours,  as  we  see  the  Spring 
rhubarb-leaf.  Unable  to  repeat  the  brevity  of  Fenellan^s 
rejoinder,  he  expatiated  on  it  to  convey  it,  swearing  that  it 


BAPwTREY  FENELLAN  213 

was  the  kind  of  thing  done  in  the  old  days,  when  men  were 
witty  dogs  :  —  "  pat !  and  pat  back !  as  in  the  pantomime." 

"  Eepartee  !  "  said  Victor.  "  He  has  it.  You  shall  know 
him.     You  're  the  man  for  him." 

"  He  for  me,  that  he  is  !  —  *  Hope  the  mother 's  doing 
well  ?  My  card : '  —  eh  ?  Grave  as  an  owl !  Look,  there 
goes  the  donkey,  lady  to  right  and  left,  all  ears  for  him  — 
ha !  ha !  I  must  have  another  turn  with  your  friend. 
*  Mother  lived,  did  she  ? '  Dam  funny  fellow,  all  of  the 
olden  time  !  And  a  dinner,  bachelor  dinner,  six  of  us,  at 
my  place,  next  week,  say  Wednesday,  half-past  six,  for  a 
long  evening  —  flowing  bowl  —  eh,  shall  it  be?" 

Nesta  came  looking  to  find  her  Captain  Dartrey. 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  grew  courtly  of  the  olden  time.  He 
spied  Colonel  Corfe  anew,  and  "  Donkey  ! "  rose  to  split  the 
roar  at  his  mouth,  and  full  of  his  anecdote,  he  pursued 
some  congenial  acquaintances,  crying  to  his  host :  "  Wednes- 
day, mind !  eh  ?  by  George,  your  friend 's  gizzarded  me  for 
the  day !  " 

Plumped  with  the  rich  red  stream  of  life,  this  last  of  the 
squires  of  old  England  thumped  along  among  the  guests,  a 
very  tuning-fork  to  keep  them  at  their  pitch  of  enthusiasm. 
He  encountered  Mr.  Caddis,  and  it  was  an  encounter.  Mr. 
Caddis  represented  his  political  opinions ;  but  here  was  this 
cur  of  a  Caddis  whineing  his  niminy  note  from  his  piminy 
nob,  when  he  was  asked  for  his  hearty  echo  of  the  praises 
of  this  jolly  good  fellow  come  to  waken  the  neighbourhood, 
to  be  a  blessing,  a  blazing  hearth,  a  fall  of  manna :  —  and 
thank  the  Lord  for  him,  you  desert-dog !  "  He 's  a  merchant 
prince,  and  he 's  a  prince  of  a  man,  if  you  're  for  titles.  Eh  ? 
you  'assent  to  my  encomiums.'  You'll  be  calling  me  Mr. 
Speaker  next.  Hang  me,  Caddis,  if  those  Parliamentary 
benches  of  yours  are  n't  freezing  you  from  your  seat  up, 
and  have  got  to  your  jaw  —  my  belief!" 

Mr.  Caddis  was  left  reflecting,  that  we  have,  in  the  dis- 
pensations of  Providence,  when  we  have  a  seat,  to  submit  to 
castigations  from  butcherly  men  unaccountably  commis- 
sioned to  solidify  the  seat.  He  could  have  preached  a  dis- 
course upon  Success,  to  quiet  the  discontentment  of  the 
unseated.  And  our  world  of  seats  oddly  gained,  quaintly 
occupied,  maliciously  beset,  insensately  envied,  needs  the 


214  ONE  OP  OUR   CONQUEROES 

discourse.  But  it  was  not  delivered,  else  would  it  have  been 
here  written  down  without  mercy,  as  a  medical  prescript, 
one  of  the  grand  specifics.  He  met  Victor,  and,  between  his 
dread  of  him  and  the  counsels  of  a  position  subject  to  stripes, 
he  was  a  genial  thaw.  Victor  beamed;  for  Mr.  Caddis  had 
previously  stood  eminent  as  an  iceberg  of  the  Lakelands' 
party.  Mr.  Inchling  and  Mr.  Caddis  were  introduced.  The 
former  in  Commerce,  the  latter  in  Politics,  their  sustaining 
boast  was,  the  being  our  stable  Englishmen  ;  and  at  once, 
with  cousinly  minds,  they  fell  to  chatting  upon  the  nothings 
agreeably  and  seriously.  Colney  Durance  forsook  a  set  of 
ladies  for  fatter  prey,  and  listened  to  them.  What  he  said, 
Victor  did  not  hear.  The  effect  was  always  to  be  seen,  with 
Inchling  under  Colney.  Fenellan  did  better  service,  really 
good  service. 

Nataly  played  the  heroine  she  was  at  heart.  Why  think 
of  her  as  having  to  act  a  character !  Twice  had  Carling  that 
afternoon,  indirectly  and  directly,  stated  Mrs.  Burman  to  be 
near  the  end  we  crape  a  natural,  a  defensible,  satisfaction  to 
hear  of :  —  not  wishing  it :  —  poor  woman  !  —  but  pardon- 
ably, before  man  and  all  the  angels,  wishing,  praying  for 
the  beloved  one  to  enter  into  her  earthly  peace  by  the  agency 
of  the  other's  exit  into  her  heavenly. 

Fenellan  and  Colney  came  together,  and  said  a  word  apiece 
of  their  friend. 

"  In  his  element !  The  dear  old  boy  has  the  look  of  a 
goldfish,  king  of  his  globe." 

"  The  dear  old  boy  has  to  me  the  look  of  a  pot  on  the  fire, 
with  a  loose  lid." 

I  may  have  the  summons  from  Themison  to-morrow,  Victor 
thought.  The  success  of  the  day  was  a  wine  that  rocked  the 
soberest  of  thoughts.  For,  strange  to  confess,  ever  since  the 
fall  on  London  Bridge,  his  heart,  influenced  in  some  degree 
by  Nataly's  depression  perhaps,  had  been  shadowed  by 
doubts  of  his  infallible  instinct  for  success.  Here,  at  a 
stroke,  and  before  entering  the  house,  he  had  the  whole 
neighbourhood  about  him :  he  could  feel  that  he  and  Nataly 
stood  in  the  minds  of  the  worthy  people  variously  with  the 
brightness  if  not  with  the  warmth  distinguishable  in  the 
bosom  of  Beaves  Urmsing  —  the  idea  of  whom  gave  Lake- 
lands an  immediate  hearth-glow. 


BARTREY  FENELLAN  215 

Armadine  was  thirteen  minutes,  by  his  watch,  behind 
the  time  she  had  named.  Small  blame  to  her.  He  excused 
her  to  Lady  Carmine,  Lady  Swanage,  Lady  Blachington, 
Mrs.  Fanning,  Sir  Abraham  Quatley,  Mr.  Danny  (of  Bacon 
fame)  and  the  rest  of  the  group  surrounding  Nataly  on  the 
mound  leftward  of  the  white  terraces  descending  to  the  lake ; 
where  she  stood  beating  her  foot  fretfully  at  the  word 
brought  by  Nesta,  that  Dartrey  Fenellan  had  departed.  It 
was  her  sunshine  departed.  But  she  went  through  her  task 
of  conversing  amiably.  Colney,  for  a  wonder,  consented  to 
be  useful  in  assisting  Fenellan  to  relate  stories  of  French 
Cooks  ;  which  were,  like  the  Koyal  Hanoverian  oyster,  of  an 
age  for  offering  acceptable  flavour  to  English  hearers.  Nesta 
drew  her  mother's  attention  to  Priscilla  Graves  and  Skepsey ; 
the  latter  bending  head  and  assenting.  Nataly  spoke  of  the 
charm  of  Priscilla's  voice  that  day,  in  her  duet  with  the  Rev. 
Septimus.  Mr.  Pempton  looked  ;  he  saw  that  Priscilla  was 
proselytizing.  She  was  perfection  to  him  but  for  one  blot- 
ting thing.  With  grief  on  his  eyelids,  he  said  to  Kataly  or 
to  himself :  "  Meat ! "     ^ 

"  Dear  friend,  don't  ride  your  hobby  over  us,"  she  replied. 

*^But  it's  with  that  object  they  mount  it,''  said  Victor. 

The  greater  ladies  of  the  assembly  were  quite  ready  to 
accuse  the  sections,  down  to  the  individuals,  of  the  social 
English  (reserving  our  elect)  of  an  itch  to  be  tyrants. 

Colney  was  apologizing  for  them,  with  his  lash :  "  It 's 
merely  the  sensible  effect  of  a  want  of  polish  of  the  surface 
when  they  rub  together." 

And  he  heard  Carling  exclaim  to  Victor :  "How  comes  the 
fellow  here !  " 

Skepsey  had  rushed  across  an  open  space  to  intercept  a 
leisurely  progressive  man,  whose  hat  was  of  the  shape  Victor 
knew;  and  the  man  wore  the  known  black  gaiters.  In 
appearance,  he  had  the  likeness  of  a  fallen  parson. 

Carling  and  Victor  crossed  looks  that  were  questions 
carrying  their  answers. 

Nataly's  eyes  followed  Victor's.  "  Who  is  the  man?  "  she 
said ;  and  she  got  no  reply  beyond  a  perky  sparkle  in  his 
gaze. 

Others  were  noticing  the  man,  who  was  trying  to  pass  by 
Skepsey,  now  on  his  right  side,  now  on  his  left. 


216  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

"There'll  be  no  stopping  him/'  Carling  said,  and  he 
slipped  to  the  rear. 

At  this  juncture  Armandine's  mellow  bell  proclaimed  her 
readiness. 

Victor  rubbed  the  back  of  his  head.  ISTataly  asked  him  : 
"Dear,  is  it  that  man?" 

He  nodded  scantly :  "  Expected,  expected.  I  think  we 
have  our  summons  from  Armadine.  One  moment  —  poor 
soul !  poor  soul !  Lady  Carmine  —  Sir  Abraham  Quatley. 
Will  you  lead?  Lady  Blachington,  I  secure  you.  One 
moment." 

He  directed  Nataly  to  pair  a  few  of  the  guests;  he 
hurried  down  the  slope  of  sward. 

Nataly  applied  to  Colney  Durance.  "Do  you  know  the 
man  ?  —  is  it  that  man?  " 

Colney  rejoined :  "  The  man's  name  is  Jarniman." 

Armadine's  bell  swung  melodiously.  The  guests  had 
grouped,  thickening  for  the  stream  to  procession.  Mrs. 
Blathenoy  claimed  Fenellan ;  she  requested  him  to  tell  her 
whether  he  had  known  Mrs.  Victor  Radnor  many  years. 
She  mused.     "You  like  her?" 

"  One  likes  one's  dearest  of  friends  among  women,  does 
one  not?  " 

The  lady  nodded  to  his  response.     "  And  your  brother?  " 

"  Dartrey  is  devoted  to  her." 

"  I  am  sure,"  said  she,  "  your  brother  is  a  chivalrous 
gentleman.  I  like  her  too."  She  came  to  her  sentiment 
through  the  sentiment  of  the  chivalrous  gentleman.  Sink- 
ing from  it,  she  remarked  that  Mr.  Eadnor  was  handsome 
still.  Fenellan  commended  the  subject  to  her,  as  one  to 
discourse  of  when  she  met  Dartrey.  A  smell  of  a  trap-hatch 
half  open,  afflicted  and  sharpened  him.  It  was  Blathenoy's 
breath :  husbands  of  young  wives  do  these  villanies,  for  the 
sake  of  showing  their  knowledge.  Fenellan  forbore  to 
praise  Mrs.  Victor :  he  laid  his  colours  on  Dartrey.  The 
lady  gave  ear  till  she  reddened.  He  meant  no  harm,  meant 
nothing  but  good ;  and  he  was  lighting  the  most  destructive 
of  our  lower  fires. 

Visibly,  that  man  Jarniman  was  disposed  of  with  ease. 
As  in  the  street-theatres  of  crowing  Punch,  distance  enlisted 
pantomime  to  do  the  effective  part  of  the  speeches.    Jarni- 


CONCERIJS  THE  liirTRtTSIO:tC  0^  JARNIMAN       217 

man's  hat  was  off,  lie  stood  bent,  he  delivered  his  message. 
He  was  handed  over  to  Skepsey's  care  for  the  receiving  of 
meat  and  drink.  Victor  returned ;  he  had  Lady  Blaching- 
ton's  hand  on  his  arm ;  he  was  all  hers,  and  in  the  heart  of 
his  company  of  guests  at  the  same  time.  Eyes  that  had 
read  him  closely  for  years,  were  unable  to  spell  a  definite 
signification  on  his  face,  below  the  overflowing  happiness  of 
the  hospitable  man  among  contented  guests.  He  had  in 
fact  something  within  to  enliven  him;  and  that  was  the 
more  than  suspicion,  amounting  to  an  odour  of  certainty, 
that  Armandine  intended  one  of  her  grand  surprises  for  her 
master,  and  for  the  hundred  and  fifty  or  so  to  be  seated  at 
her  tables  in.  the  unwarmed  house  of  Lakelands. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

CONCERNS    THE  INTRUSION   OF  JARNIMAN 

Armandine  did  her  wonders.  There  is  not  in  the  wide 
range  of  the  Muses  a  more  responsive  instrument  than  man 
to  his  marvellous  cook ;  and  if  his  notes  were  but  as  flowing 
as  his  pedals  are  zealous,  we  should  be  carried  on  the  tale 
of  the  enthusiasm  she  awakened,  away  from  the  rutted  high- 
road, where  History  now  thinks  of  tightening  her  girdle  for 
an  accelerated  pace. 

The  wonders  were  done :  one  hundred  and  seventy  guests 
plenteously  fed  at  tables  across  the  great  Concert  Hall,  down 
a  length  of  the  conservatory-glass,  on  soups,  fish,  meats,  and 
the  kitchen-garden,  under  play  of  creative  sauces,  all  in  the 
persuasive  steam  of  savouriness ;  every  dish,  one  may  say, 
advancing,  curtseying,  swimming  to  be  your  partner,  instead 
of  passively  submitting  to  the  eye  of  appetite,  consenting  to 
the  teeth,  as  that  rather  melancholy  procession  of  the  cold, 
resembling  established  spinsters  thrice-corseted  in  decorum, 
will  appear  to  do.  Whether  Armandine  had  the  thought  or 
that  she  simply  acted  in  conformity  with  a  Frenchwoman's 
direct  good  sense,  we  do  require  to  smell  a  sort  of  animation 
in  the  meats  we  consume.    We  are  still  perhaps  traceably 


218  OKE  OF  OtJE  CONQtTEEOBS 

related  to  the  Adamite  old-youngster  just  on  his  legs,  who 
betrayed  at  every  turn  his  Darwinian  beginnings,  and 
relished  a  palpitating  unwillingness  in  the  thing  refreshing 
him ;  only  we  young-oldsters  cherish  the  milder  taste  for 
Willingness,  with  a  throb  of  the  vanquished  in  it.  And  a 
seeming  of  that  we  get  from  the  warm  roast.  The  banquet 
to  be  fervently  remembered,  should  smoke,  should  send  out 
a  breath  to  meet  us.  Victor's  crowded  saloon-carriage  was 
one  voice  of  eulogy,  to  raise  Armandine  high  as  the  finale 
rockets  bursting  over  Wrensham  Station  at  the  start  London- 
ward.  How  had  she  managed  ?  We  foolishly  question  the 
arts  of  magicians. 

Mr.  Pempton  was  an  apparent  dissentient,  as  the  man 
must  be  who  is  half  a  century  ahead  of  his  fellows  in  hu- 
maneness, and  saddened  by  the  display  of  slaughtered 
herds  and  their  devourers.  He  had  picked  out  his  vege- 
table and  farinaceous  morsels,  wherever  he  could  get  them 
uncontaminated  ;  enough  for  sustenance  ;  and  the  utmost  he 
could  show  was,  that  he  did  not  complain.  When  mounted 
and  ridden  by  the  satirist,  in  wrath  at  him  for  systemati- 
cally feasting  the  pride  of  the  martyr  on  the  maceration  of 
his  animal  part,  he  put  on  his  martyr's  pride,  which  as- 
sumed a  perfect  contentment  in  the  critical  depreciation  of 
opposing  systems :  he  was  drawn  to  state,  as  he  had  often 
done,  that  he  considered  our  animal  part  shamefully  and 
dangerously  overnourished,  and  that  much  of  the  immoral- 
ity of  the  world  was  due  to  the  present  exeessive  indulgence 
in  meats.  "  Not  in  drink  ?  "  Miss  Graves  inquired.  "  No," 
he  said  boldly;  "not  equally;  meats  are  more  insidious. 
I  say  nothing  of  taking  life  —  of  fattening  for  that  express 
purpose :  diseases  of  animals :  bad  blood  made  :  cruelty 
superinduced  :  —  it  will  be  seen  to  be,  it  will  be  looked  back 
on,  as  a  form  of,  a  second  stage  of,  cannibalism.  Let  that 
pass.  I  say,  that  for  excess  in  drinking,  the  penalty  is  paid 
instantly,  or  at  least  on  the  morrow." 

"  Paid  by  the  drunkard's  wife,  you  should  say.'' 

"  Whereas  intemperance  in  eating,  corrupts  constitution- 
ally, more  spiritually  vitiates,  we  think:  on  the  whole, 
gluttony  is  the  least-generous  of  the  vices." 

Colney  lured  Mr.  Pempton  through  a  quagmire  of  the 
vices  to  declare,  that  it  brutalized;  and  stammeringly  to 


CONCEENS  THE  IKTRUSION  OF  JAENtMAN       219 

adopt  the  suggestion,  that  our  breeding  of  English  ladies  — 
those  lights  of  the  civilized  world  —  can  hardly  go  with  a 
feeding  upon  flesh  of  beasts.  Priscilla  regretted  that  cham- 
pagne should  have  to  be  pleaded  in  excuse  of  impertinences 
to  her  sex.  They  were  both  combative,  nibbed  for  epigram, 
edged  to  inflict  wounds  ;  and  the}'-  were  set  to  shudder 
openly  at  one  another's  practices  ;  they  might  have  exposed 
to  Colney  which  of  the  two  maniacal  sections  of  his  English 
had  the  vaster  conceit  of  superiority  in  purity ;  they  were 
baring  themselves,  as  it  were  with  a  garment  flung-off  at  each 
retort.  He  reproached  them  for  undermineing  their  coun- 
trymen ;  whose  Falstaff  panics  demanded  blood  of  animals 
to  restore  them ;  and  their  periods  of  bragging,  that  they 
should  brandify  their  wits  to  imagine  themselves  Vikings. 

Nataly  interposed.  She  was  vexed  with  him.  He  let 
his  eyelids  drop :  but  the  occasion  for  showing  the  prickli- 
ness  of  the  bristly  social  English,  could  not  be  resisted.  Dr. 
Peter  Yatt  was  tricked  to  confess,  that  small  annoyances 
were,  in  his  experience,  powerful  on  the  human  frame  ; 
and  Dr.  John  Cormyn  was  very  neatly  brought  round  to  as- 
sure him  he  was  mistaken  if  he  supposed  the  homoeopathio 
doctor  who  smoked  was  exercising  a  destructive  influence 
on  the  efficacy  of  the  infinitesimal  doses  he  prescribed  ;  Dr. 
Yatt  chuckled  a  laugh  at  globules ;  Dr.  Cormyn  at  patients 
treated  as  horses ;  while  Mr.  Catkin  was  brought  to  praise 
the  smoke  of  tobacco  as  our  sanctuary  from  the  sex ;  and 
Mr.  Peridon  quietly  denied,  that  the  taking  of  it  into  his 
nostrils  from  the  puffs  of  his  friend  caused  him  sad  silences. 
Nesta  flew  to  protect  the  admirer  of  her  beloved  Louise. 
Her  subsiding  young  excitement  of  the  day  set  her  doating 
on  that  moony  melancholy  in  Mr.  Peridon. 

No  one  could  understand  the  grounds  for  Colney's  more 
than  usual  waspishness.  He  trotted  out  the  fulgent  and 
tonal  Church  of  the  Eev.  Septimus;  the  skeleton  of  wor- 
ship, so  truly  showing  the  spirit,  in  that  of  Dudley  Sowerby's 
family ;  maliciously  admiring  both  ;  and  he  had  a  spar  with 
Fenellan,  ending  in  a  snarl  and  a  shout.  Victor  said  to  him : 
"  Yes,  here,  as  much  as  you  like,  old  Colney,  but  I  tell  you, 
youVe  staggered  that  poor  woman  Lady  Blachington  to- 
day, and  her  husband  too;  and  I  don't  know  how  many 
besides.    What  the  pleasure  of  it  can  be,  I  can't  guess.'' 


220  OKE  OF  OTTR  COKQUEBORS 

"  Kor  I,"  said  Fenellan,  "  but  I  '11  own  I  feel  envious  ;  like 
the  girl  among  a  family  of  boys  I  knew,  who  were  all  of 
them  starved  in  their  infancy  by  a  miserly  father,  that  gave 
them  barely  a  bit  of  Graves  to  eat  and  not  a  drop  of  Pemp- 
ton  to  drink ;  and  on  the  afternoon  of  his  funeral,  I  found 
them  in  the  drawing-room,  four  lank  fellows,  heels  up, 
walking  on  their  hands,  from  long  practice  ;  and  the  girl 
informed  me,  that  her  brothers  were  able  so  to  send  the 
little  blood  they  had  in  their  bodies  to  their  brains,  and 
always  felt  quite  cheerful  for  it,  happy,  and  empowered  to 
deal  with  the  problems  of  the  universe  ;  as  they  could  n't  on 
their  legs ;  but  she,  poor  thing,  was  forbidden  to  do  the 
same  !  And  I  'm  like  her.  I  care  for  decorum  too  much  to 
get  the  brain  to  act  on  Colney's  behaviour ;  but  I  see  it 
enraptures  him  and  may  be  comprehensible  to  the  topsy- 
turvey." 

Victor  rubbed  hands.  It  was  he  who  filled  Colney's  bag 
of  satiric  spite.  In  addition  to  the  downright  lunacy  of  the 
courting  of  country  society,  by  means  of  the  cajolements 
witnessed  this  day,  a  suspicion  that  Victor  was  wearing  a 
false  face  over  the  signification  of  Jarniman's  visit  and  meant 
to  deceive  the  trustful  and  too-devoted  loving  woman  he 
seemed  bound  to  wreck,  irritated  the  best  of  his  nature.  He 
had  a  resolve  to  pass  an  hour  with  the  couple,  and  speak  and 
insist  on  hearing  plain  words  before  the  night  had  ended. 
But  Fenellan  took  it  out  of  him.  Victor's  show  of  a  perfect 
contentment  emulating  Pempton's,  incited  Colney  to  some  of 
his  cunning  rapier-thrusts  with  his  dancing  adversary ;  and 
the  heat  which  is  planted  in  us  for  the  composition  of  those 
cool  epigrams,  will  not  allow  plain  words  to  follow.  Or, 
handing  him  over  to  the  police  of  the  Philistines,  you  may 
put  it,  that  a  habit  of  assorting  spices  will  render  an  earnest 
simplicity  distasteful.  He  was  invited  by  Nataly  to  come 
home  with  them  ;  her  wish  for  his  presence,  besides  personal, 
was  moved  by  an  intuition,  that  his  counsel  might  specially 
benefit  them.  He  shrugged;  he  said  he  had  work  at  his 
chambers. 

"  Work ! "  Victor  ejaculated :  he  never  could  reach  to  a 
right  comprehension  of  labour,  in  regard  to  the  very  unre- 
munerative  occupation  of  literature.  Colney  he  did  not  want, 
and  he  let  him  go,  as  Nataly  noticed,  without  a  sign  of  the 


CONCERNS   THE  INTHUSION   OF   JARNTMAN        221 

reluctance  he  showed  when  the  others,  including  Fenellan, 
excused  themselves. 

"  So :  we  're  alone  ?  "  he  said,  when  the  door  of  the  hall 
had  closed  on  them.  He  kept  Nesta  talking  of  the  success 
of  the  day  until  she,  observing  her  mother's  look,  simulated 
the  setting-in  of  a  frenzied  yawn.  She  was  kissed,  and  she 
tripped  to  her  bed. 

"  Now  we  are  alone,"  Nataly  said. 

"  Well,  dear,  and  the  day  was,  you  must  own  .  .  ."  he 
sought  to  trifle  with  her  heavy  voice  ;  but  she  recalled  him : 
*'  Victor  ! "  and  the  naked  anguish  in  her  cry  of  his  name 
was  like  a  foreign  world  threatening  the  one  he  filled. 

"Ah,  yes;  that  man,  that  Jarniman.  You  saw  him,  I 
remember.  You  recollected  him  ?  —  stouter  than  he  was.  In 
her  service  ever  since.  Well,  a  little  drop  of  bitter,  perhaps : 
no  harm,  tonic." 

"  Victor,  is  she  very  ill  ?  " 

'^  My  love,  don't  feel  at  your  side  :  she  is  ill,  ill,  not  the 
extreme  case :  not  yet :  old  and  ill.  I  told  Skepsey  to  give 
the  man  refreshment :  he  had  to  do  his  errand." 

"What ?  why  did  he  come  ?  " 

"Curious;  he  made  acquaintance  with  Skepsey,  and 
appears  to  have  outwitted  poor  Skepsey,  as  far  as  I  see  it. 
But  if  that  woman  thinks  of  intimidating  me  now  !  —  "  His 
eyes  brightened ;  he  had  sprung  from  evasions.  "  Living  in 
flagrant  sin,  she  says  :  you  and  I !  She  will  not  have  it ; 
warns  me.  Heard  this  day  at  noon  of  company  at  Lakelands. 
Jarniman  off  at  once.  Are  to  live  in  obscurity ;  —  you  and 
I !  if  together  !  Dictates  from  her  death-bed  —  I  suppose 
her  death-bed." 

"  Dearest,"  Nataly  pressed  hand  on  her  left  breast,  "  may 
we  not  think  that  she  may  be  right  ?  " 

"  An  outrageous  tyranny  of  a  decrepit  woman  naming  her- 
self wife  when  she  is  only  a  limpet  of  vitality,  with  drugs 
for  blood,  hanging-on  to  blast  the  healthy  and  vigorous  !  I 
remember  old  Colney's  once,  in  old  days,  calling  that  kind  of 
marriage  a  sarcophagus.  It  was  to  me.  There  I  lay  —  see 
myself  lying !  wasting !  Think  what  you  can  good  of  her, 
by  all  means  !  Prom  her  bed !  despatches  that  Jarniman  to 
me  from  her  bedside,  with  the  word,  that  she  cannot  in  her 
conscience  allow  —  what  imposition  was  it  I  practised  ?  .  .  . 


222  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

flagrant  sin  ?  —  it  would  have  been  an  infinitely  viler.  .  .  . 
She  is  the  cause  of  suffering  enough :  I  bear  no  more  from 
her ;  I  've  come  to  the  limit.  She  has  heard  of  Lakelands  : 
she  has  taken  one  of  her  hatreds  to  the  place.  She  might 
have  written,  might  have  sent  me  a  gentleman,  privately. 
Kg  :  it  must  be  done  in  dramatic  style  —  for  effect :  her  con- 
fidential —  lawyer  ? —  doctor  ? —  butler !  Perhaps  to  frighten 
me :  —  the  boy  she  knew,  and  —  poor  soul !  I  don't  mean  to 
abuse  her  :  but  such  conduct  as  this  is  downright  brutal.  I 
laugh  at  it,  I  snap  my  fingers.  I  can  afford  to  despise  it. 
Only  I  do  say  it  deserves  to  be  called  abominable." 

^*  Victor,  has  she  used  a  threat  ?  " 

"  Am  I  brought  to  listen  to  any  of  her  threats  !  —  Funny 
thing,  I  'm  certain  that  woman  never  can  think  of  me  except 
as  the  boy  she  knew.  1  saw  her  first  when  she  was  first  a 
widow.  She  would  keej)  talking  to  me  of  the  seductions  of 
the  metropolis  — kept  informing  me  I  was  a  young  man  .  .  . 
shaking  her  head.  I  've  told  you.  She  —  well,  I  know  we 
are  mixtures,  women  as  well  as  men.  I  can,  I  hope,  grant 
the  same  —  I  believe  I  can  —  allowances  to  women  as  to 
men  ;  we  are  poor  creatures,  all  of  us  —  in  one  sense  :  though 
I  won't  give  Colney  his  footing ;  there  's  a  better  way  of 
reading  us.  I  hold  fast  to  Nature.  No  violation  of  Nature, 
my  good  Colney  !  We  can  live  the  lives  of  noble  creatures ; 
and  I  say  that  happiness  was  meant  for  us  :  —  just  as,  when 
you  sit  down  to  your  dinner,  you  must  do  it  cheerfully,  and 
you  make  good  blood :  otherwise  all 's  wrong.  There 's  the 
right  answer  to  Colney  !  But  when  a  woman  like  that  .  .  . 
and  marries  a  boy :  well,  twenty-one  —  not  quite  that :  and  an 
innocent,  a  positive  innocent  —  it  may  seem  incredible,  after 
a  term  of  school-life  :  it  was  a  fact :  I  can  hardly  understand 
it  myself  when  I  look  back.  Marries  him  !  And  then  sets 
to  work  to  persecute  him,  because  he  has  blood  in  his  veins, 
because  he  worships  beauty ;  because  he  seeks  a  real  mar- 
riage, a  real  mate.  And,  I  say  it !  —  let  the  world  take  its 
own  view,  the  world  is  wrong !  —  because  he  preferred  a 
virtuous  life  to  the  kind  of  life  she  would,  she  must — why, 
necessarily  !  —  have  driven  him  to,  with  a  mummy's  grain  of 
nature  in  his  body.     And  I  am  made  of  flesh,  I  admit  it." 

**  Victor,  dearest,  her  threat  concerns  only  your  living  at 
Lakelands." 


CONCEKNS  THE  INTEUSION  OF  JAENHVIAN       223 

"Pray,  don't  speak  excitedly,  my  love,"  lie  replied  to  the 
woman  whose  tones  had  been  subdued  to  scarce  more  than 
waver.  ^'  You  see  how  I  meet  it :  water  off  a  duck's  back, 
or  Indian  solar  beams  on  the  skin  of  a  Hindoo  !  I  despise 
it  —  hardly  worth  contempt ;  —  But,  come  :  our  day  was  a 
good  one.  Fenellan  worked  well.  Old  Colney  was  Colney 
Durance,  of  course.     He  did  no  real  mischief." 

^^  And  you  will  not  determine  to  enter  Lakelands  —  not 
yet,  dear  ?  "  said  Nataly. 

"  My  own  girl,  leave  it  all  to  me." 

"  But,  Victor,  I  must,  must  know." 

"See  the  case.  You  have  lots  of  courage.  We  can't 
withdraw.  Her  intention  is  mischief.  I  believe  the 
woman  keeps  herself  alive  for  it :  we  've  given  her  another 
lease  !  —  though  it  can  only  be  for  a  very  short  time ;  Themi- 
son  is  precise  ;  Carling  too.  If  we  hold  back  —  I  have  great 
faith  in  Themison  —  the  woman's  breath  on  us  is  confirmed. 
We  go  down,  then ;  complete  the  furnishing,  quite  leisurely ; 
accept  —  listen  —  accept  one  or  two  invitations  :  impossible 
to  refuse  !  —  but  they  are  accepted  !  —  and  we  defy  her :  — 
a  crazy  old  creature  :  imagines  herself  the  wife  of  the  ex- 
Premier,  widow  of  Prince  Le  Boo,  engaged  to  the  Chinese 
Ambassador,  et  csetera.  Leave  the  tussle  with  that  woman 
to  me.  No,  we  don't  repeat  the  error  of  Craye  Farm  and 
Creckholt.  And  here  we  have  stout  friends.  Not  to  speak 
of  Beaves  Urmsing  :  a  picture  of  Old  Christmas  England ! 
You  took  to  him  ?  —  must  have  taken  to  Beaves  Urmsing ! 
The  Marigolds  !  And  Sir  Rodwell  and  Lady  Blachington 
are  altogether  above  the  mark  of  Sir  Humphrey  and  Lady 
Pottil,  and  those  half  and  half  Mountneys.  There 's  a 
warm  centre  of  home  in  Lakelands.  But  I  know  my 
Nataly  :  she  is  thinking  of  our  girl.  Here  is  the  plan :  We 
stand  our  ground :  my  dear  soul  won't  forsake  me :  only 
there  's  the  thought  of  Fredi,  in  the  event  .  .  .  improbable 
enough.  I  lift  Fredi  out  of  the  atmosphere  awhile ;  she 
goes  to  my  cousins  the  Duvidney  ladies." 

Nataly  was  hit  by  a  shot.    "  Can  you  imagine  it,  Victor  ?  " 

"  Eegard  it  as  done." 

"  They  will  surely  decline  !  " 

"  Their  feeling  for  General  Radnor  is  a  worship." 

"  All  the  more  .  .  ,  ?  " 


224  ONE  OF  OUB  CONQUEROHS 

"  The  son  inherits  it.  He  goes  to  them  personally.  Have 
you  ever  known  me  personally  fail  ?  Fredi  stays  at  Moors- 
edge  for  a  month  or  two.  Dorothea  and  Virginia  Duvidney 
will  give  her  a  taste  of  a  new  society ;  good  for  the  girl. 
All  these  little  shiftings  can  be  turned  to  good.  Meantime, 
I  say,  we  stand  our  ground :  but  you  are  not  to  be  worried ; 
for  though  we  have  gone  too  far  to  recede,  we  need  not  and 
we  will  not  make  the  entry  into  Lakelands  until  —  you 
know ;  that  is,  auspiciously,  to  suit  you  in  every  way. 
Thus  I  provide  to  meet  contingencies.  What  one  may 
really  fancy  is,  that  the  woman  did  but  threaten.  There 's 
her  point  of  view  to  be  considered :  sill}^,  crazy ;  but  one 
sees  it.  We  are  not  sure  that  she  struck  a  blow  at  Craye  or 
Creckholt.  I  wonder  she  never  wrote.  She  was  frightened, 
when  she  came  to  manage  her  property,  of  signing  her 
name  to  anything.  Absurd,  that  sending  of  Jarniman! 
However,  it 's  her  move ;  we  make  a  corresponding  dis- 
position of  our  chessmen." 

"  And  I  am  to  lose  my  Nesta  for  a  month  ?  "  Nataly  said, 
after  catching  here  and  there  at  the  fitful  gleams  of  truce  or 
comfort  dropped  from  his  words.  And  simultaneously,  the 
reproach  of  her  mind  to  her  nature  for  again  and  so  con- 
stantly yielding  to  the  domination  of  his  initiative  —  unable 
to  find  the  words,  even  the  ideas,  to  withstand  him,  — 
brought  big  tears.  Angry  at  herself  both  for  the  internal 
feebleness  and  the  exhibition  of  it,  she  blinked  and  begged 
excuse.  There  might  be  nothing  that  should  call  her  to 
resist  him.  She  could  not  do  much  worse  than  she  had  done 
to-day.  The  reflection,  that  to-day  she  had  been  actually 
sustained  by  the  expectation  of  a  death  to  come,  diminished 
her  estimate  of  to-morrow's  burden  on  her  endurance,  in 
making  her  seem  a  less  criminal  woman,  who  would  have 
no  such  expectation :  —  which  was  virtually  a  stab  at  a 
fellow  creature's  future.  Her  head  was  acute  to  work  in 
the  direction  of  the  casuistries  and  the  sensational  webs 
and  films.    Facing  Victor,  it  was  a  block. 

But  the  thought  came  :  how  would  she  meet  those  people 
about  Lakelands,  without  support  of  the  recent  guilty  whis- 
pers !  She  said  coldly,  her  heart  shaking  her :  "  You  think 
there  has  been  a  recovery  ?  " 

"Invalida  are  up  and  down.    They  are  —  well,  noj  I 


CONCERNS   THE   INTRUSION  OF  JARNIIVIAN       225 

should  think  she  dreads  the  .  .  ."  he  kept  "  surgeon "  out 
of  hearing.  "  Or  else  she  means  this  for  the  final  stroke : 
'  though  I  'm  lying  here,  I  can  still  make  him  feel.'  That, 
or  —  poor  woman  —  she  has  her  notions  of  right  and 
wrong." 

"  Could  we  not  now  travel  for  a  few  weeks,  Victor  ?  " 

"  Certainly,  dear;  we  will,  after  we  have  kept  our  en- 
gagements to  dine  —  I  accepted  —  with  the  Blathenoys,  the 
Blachingtons,  Beaves  Urmsing." 

Nataly's  vision  of  the  peaceful  lost  little  dairy  cottage 
swelled  to  brilliance,  like  the  large  tear  at  the  fall ;  darken- 
ing under  her  present  effort  to  comprehend  the  necessity  it 
was  for  him  to  mix  and  be  foremost  with  the  world.  Un- 
able to  grasp  it  perfectly  in  mind,  her  compassionate  love 
embraced  it :  she  blamed  herself  for  being  the  obstruction 
to  him. 

"  Very  well,"  she  said  on  a  sigh.  "  Then  we  shall  not 
have  to  let  our  girl  go  from  us  ?  " 

"  Just  a  few  weeks.     In  the  middle  of  dinner,  I  scribbled      ^ 
a  telegram  to  the  Duvidneys,  for  Skepsey  to  take." 

"  Speaking  of  Nesta?" 

^^Of  my  coming  to-morrow.  They  won't  stop  me.  I 
dine  with  them,  sleep  at  the  Wells ;  hotel  for  a  night.  We 
are  to  be  separated  for  a  night." 

She  laid  her  hand  in  his  and  gave  him  a  passing  view  of 
her  face :  "  For  two,  dear.  I  am  .  .  .  that  man's  visit  — 
rather  shaken :  I  shall  have  a  better  chance  of  sleeping  if 
I  know  I  am  not  disturbing  you." 

She  was  firm ;  and  they  kissed  and  parted.  Each  had  an 
unphrased  speculation  upon  the  power  of  Mrs.  Burman  to 
put  division  between  them. 


16 


226  ONE  OF   OUPv  CONQUEKOBS 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


MOMENTOUS   EFFECTS  PBODUCED  BY   VERY    MINOR  CAUSES 

The  maiden  ladies  Dorothea  and  Virginia  Duvidney  were 
thin-sweet  old-fashioned  grey  gentlewomen,  demurely  con- 
scious of  their  excellence  and  awake  to  the  temptation  in 
the  consciousness,  who  imposed  a  certain  reflex  primness  on 
the  lips  of  the  world  when  addressing  them  or  when  allud- 
ing to  them.  For  their  appearance  was  picturesque  of  the 
ancestral  time,  and  their  ideas  and  scrupulousness  of  de- 
livery suggested  the  belated  in  ripeness ;  orchard  apples 
under  a  snow-storm ;  or  any  image  that  will  ceremoniously 
convey  the  mind's  profound  appreciation  together  with  the 
tooth's  panic  dread  of  tartness.  They  were  by  no  means 
tart ;  only,  as  you  know,  the  tooth  is  apprehensively  ner- 
vous ;  an  uninviting  sign  will  set  it  on  edge.  Even  the  pen 
which  would  sketch  them  has  a  spell  on  it  and  must  don  its 
coat  of  office,  walk  the  liveried  footman  behind  them. 

Their  wealth,  their  deeds  of  charity,  their  modesty,  their 
built  grey  locks,  their  high  repute;  a  "Chippendale  ele- 
gance "  in  a  quaintly  formal  correctness,  that  they  had,  as 
Colney  Durance  called  it,  —  gave  them  some  queenliness,  and 
allowed  them  to  claim  the  ear  as  an  oracle  and  banish  re- 
bellious argument.  Intuitive  knowledge,  assisted  by  the 
Rev.  Stuart  Rem  and  the  Rev.  Abram  Posterley,  enabled 
them  to  pronounce  upon  men  and  things ;  not  without  effect ; 
their  country  owned  it ;  the  foreigner  beheld  it.  Nor  were 
they  corrupted  by  the  servility  of  the  surrounding  ear. 
They  were  good  women,  striving  to  be  humbly  good.  They 
might,  for  all  the  little  errors  they  nightly  unrolled  to  their 
perceptions,  have  stood  before  the  world  for  a  study  in  the 
white  of  our  humanity.  And  this  may  be  but  a  washed 
wall,  it  is  true:  revolutionary  sceptics  are  measuring  the 
depths  of  it.  But  the  hue  refreshes,  the  world  admires ; 
and  we  know  it  an  object  of  aim  to  the  bettermost  of  the 
wealthy.  If,  happily,  complacent  circumstances  have  lifted 
us  to  the  clean  paved  platform  out  of  grip  of  puddled  _cla^. 


THE  ladies'  lapdog  tasso  227 

and  bespattering  wheeltracks,  we  get  our  chance  of  coming 
to  it. 

Possessing,  for  example,  nine  thousand  pounds  per  annum 
in  Consols,  and  not  expending  the  whole  of  it  upon  our 
luxuries,  we  are,  without  further  privation,  near  to  kindling 
the  world's  enthusiasm  for  whiteness.  Yet  there,  too,  we 
find,  that  character  has  its  problems  to  solve;  there  are 
shades  in  salt.  We  must  be  charitable,  but  we  should  be 
just ;  we  give  to  the  poor  of  the  land,  but  we  are  eminently 
the  friends  of  our  servants;  duty  to  mankind  diverts  us 
not  from  the  love  we  bear  to  our  dog ;  and  with  a  pathetic 
sorrow  for  sin,  we  discard  it  from  sight  and  hearing.  We 
hate  dirt.  Having  said  so  much,  having  shown  it,  by  seal- 
ing the  mouth  of  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  and  iceing  the  veins  of 
Mr.  Abram  Posterley,  in  relation  to  a  dreadful  public  case 
and  a  melancholy  private,  we  have  a  pleased  sense  of  entry 
into  the  world's  ideal. 

At  the  same  time,  we  protest  our  unworthiness.  Acknowl- 
edgeing  that  they  were  not  purely  spotless,  these  ladies  gen- 
uinely took  the  tiny  fly-spot  for  a  spur  to  purification ;  and 
they  viewed  it  as  a  patch  to  raise  in  relief  their  goodness. 
They  gazed  on  it,  saw  themselves  in  it,  and  veiled  it :  warned 
of  the  cunning  of  an  oft-defeated  Tempter. 

To  do  good  and  sleep  well,  was  their  sowing  and  their 
reaping.  Uneasy  consciences  could  not  have  slept.  The 
sleeping  served  for  proof  of  an  accurate  reckoning  and  an 
expungeing  of  the  day's  debits.  They  differed  in  opinion 
now  and  then,  as  we  see  companion  waves  of  the  river, 
blown  by  a  gust,  roll  a  shadow  between  them ;  and  almost 
equally  transient  were  their  differences  with  a  world  that 
they  condemned  when  they  could  not  feel  they  (as  an  em- 
bodiment of  their  principles)  were  leading  it.  The  English 
world  at  times  betrayed  a  restiveness  in  the  walled  path- 
way of  virtue ;  for,  alas,  it  closely  neighbours  the  French ; 
only  a  Channel,  often  dangerously  smooth,  to  divide ;  but 
it  is  not  perverted  for  long ;  and  the  English  Funds  are 
always  constant  and  a  tower.  Would  they  be  suffered  to 
be  so,  if  libertinism  were  in  the  ascendant  ? 

Colney  Durance  was  acquainted  with  the  Duvidney  ladies. 
Hearing  of  the  journey  to  them  and  the  purport  of  it,  he 
said,  with  the  mask  upon  glee :  "  Then  Victor  has  met  his 


228  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

match ! "  Nataly  had  sent  for  him  to  dine  with  her  in 
Victor's  absence:  she  was  far  from  grieved,  as  to  the  re- 
sult, by  his  assurance  to  her,  that  Victor  had  not  a  chance. 
Colney  thought  so.  "  Just  like  him  !  to  be  off  gaily  to  try 
and  overcome  or  come  over  the  greatest  power  in  England.'^ 
They  were  England  herself ;  the  squat  old  woman  she  has 
become  by  reason  of  her  overlapping  numbers  of  the  com- 
fortable fund-holder  annuitants:  a  vast  body  of  passives 
and  negatives,  living  by  precept,  according  to  rules  of  pre- 
cedent, and  supposing  themselves  to  be  righteously  guided 
because  of  their  continuing  undisturbed.  Them  he  branded, 
as  hypocritical  materialists,  and  the  country  for  pride  in 
her  sweetmeat  plethora  of  them :  —  mixed  with  an  ancient 
Hebrew  fear  of  offence  to  an  inscrutable  Lord,  eccentrically 
appeasable  through  the  dreary  iteration  of  the  litany  of 
sinfulness.  He  was  near  a  truth ;  and  he  had  the  heat  of 
it  on  him. 

Satirists  in  their  fervours  might  be  near  it  to  grasp  it,  if 
they  could  be  moved  to  moral  distinctness,  mental  intention, 
with  a  preference  of  strong  plain  speech  over  the  crack  of 
their  whips.  Colney  could  not  or  would  not  praise  our 
modern  adventurous,  experimental,  heroic,  tramping  active, 
as  opposed  to  yonder  pursy  passives  and  negatives  ;  he  had 
occasions  for  flicking  the  fellow  sharply :  and  to  speak  of  the 
Lord  as  our  friend  present  with  us,  palpable  to  Reason, 
perceptible  to  natural  piety  solely  through  the  reason,  which 
justifies  punishment,  — that  would  have  stopped  his  mouth 
upon  the  theme  of  God-forsaken  creatures.  Our  satirist  is 
an  executioner  by  profession,  a  moralist  in  excuse,  or  at  the 
tail  of  it ;  though  he  thinks  the  position  reversed,  when  he 
moralizes  angrily  to  have  his  angry  use  of  the  scourge  con- 
doned. Nevertheless,  he  fills  a  serviceable  place  ;  and 
certainly  he  is  not  happy  in  his  business.  Colney  suffered 
as  heavily  as  he  struck.  If  he  had  been  no  more  than  a 
mime  in  the  motley  of  satire,  he  would  have  sucked  com- 
pensation from  the  acid  of  his  phrases,  for  the  failure  to 
prick  and  goad,  and  work  amendment. 

He  dramatized  to  Nataly  some  of  the  scene  going  on  at 
the  Wells :  Victor's  petition ;  his  fugue  in  urgency  of  it ; 
the  brief  reply  of  Miss  Dorothea  and  her  muted  echo  Miss 
Virginia.    He  was  rather  their  apologist  for  refusing.    But, 


THE  LADIES*  LAlPDOG  TASSO  229 

as  when,  after  himself  listening  to  their  "  views,"  he  had 
deferentially  withdrawn  from  the  ladies  of  Moorsedge,  and 
had  then  beheld  their  strangely-hatted  lieutenants  and  the 
regiments  of  the  toneless  respectable  on  the  pantiles  and 
the  mounts,  the  curse  upon  the  satirist  impelled  him  to 
generalize.  The  quiet  good  ladies  were  multiplied:  they 
were  "the  thousands  of  their  sisters,  petticoated  or  long- 
coated  or  buck-skinned;  comfortable  annuitants  under  cleri- 
cal shepherding,  close  upon  outnumbering  the  labourers  they 
paralyze  at  home  and  stultify  abroad."  Colney  thumped 
away.  The  country's  annuitants  had  for  type  "  the  figure 
with  the  helmet  of  the  Owl-Goddess  and  the  trident  of  the 
Earth-shaker,  seated  on  a  wheel,  at  the  back  of  penny- 
pieces  ;  in  whom  you  see  neither  the  beauty  of  nakedness 
nor  the  charm  of  drapery;  not  the  helmet's  dignity  or  the 
trident's  power ;  but  she  has  patently  that  which  stops  the 
wheel ;  and  poseing  for  representative  of  an  imperial  nation, 
she  helps  to  pass  a  penny."  So  he  passed  his  epigram, 
heedless  of  the  understanding  or  attention  of  his  hearer ; 
who  temporarily  misjudged  him  for  a  man  impelled  hy  the 
vanity  of  literary  point  and  finish,  when  indeed  it  was  hot 
satiric  spite,  justified  of  its  aim,  which  crushed  a  class  to 
extract  a  drop  of  scathing  acid,  in  the  interests  of  the 
country,  mankind  as  well.  Nataly  wanted  a  picture  painted, 
colours  and  details,  that  she  might  get  a  vision  of  the  scene 
at  Moorsedge.  She  did  her  best  to  feel  an  omen  and  sound 
it,  in  his  question  "  whether  the  yearly  increasing  army  of 
the  orderly  annuitants  and  their  parasites  does  not  demon- 
strate the  proud  old  country  as  a  sheath  for  pith  rather  than 
of  the  vital  run  of  sap."  Perhaps  it  was  patriotic  to  inquire ; 
and  doubtless  she  was  the  weakest  of  women;  she  could 
follow  no  thought;  her  heart  was  beating  blindly  beside 
Victor,  hopeing  for  the  refusal  painful  to  her  through  his 
disappointment. 

"You  think  me  foolish,"  she  made  answer  to  one  of 
Colney's  shrugs ;  "  and  it  has  come  to  that  pitch  with  me, 
that  I  cannot  be  sensible  of  a  merit  except  in  being  one 
with  him  —  obeying,  is  the  word.  And  I  have  never  yet 
known  him  fail.  That  terrible  Lakelands  wears  a  different 
look  to  me,  when  I  think  of  what  he  can  do ;  though  I  would 
give  half  my  days  to  escape  it." 


230  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

She  harped  on  the  chord  of  feverish  extravagance ;  the 
more  hateful  to  Colney  because  of  his  perceiving,  that  she 
simulated  a  blind  devotedness  to  stupefy  her  natural  pride  ; 
and  he  was  divided  between  stamping  on  her  for  an  imbecile 
and  dashing  at  Victor  for  a  maniac.  But  her  situation  ren- 
dered her  pitiable.  "  You  will  learn  to-morrow  what  Victor 
has  done,"  he  said,  and  thought  how  the  simple  words 
carried  the  bitterness. 

That  was  uttered  within  a  few  minutes  of  midnight,  when 
the  ladies  of  Moorsedge  themselves,  after  an  exhausting 
resistance  to  their  dearest  relative,  were  at  the  hall-door  of 
the  house  with  Victor,  saying  the  good-night,  to  which  he 
responded  hurriedly,  cordially,  dumbly,  a  baffled  man. 
They  clasped  hands.  Miss  Dorothea  said :  "  You,  Victor, 
always  J'  Miss  Virginia  said:  "You  will  be  sure  of  wel- 
come." He  walked  out  upon  the  moonless  night ;  and  for 
lack  of  any  rounded  object  in  the  smothering  darkness  to 
look  at,  he  could  nowhere  take  moorings  to  gather  himself 
together  and  define  the  man  who  had  undergone  so  porten- 
tous a  defeat.  He  was  glad  of  quarters  at  an  hotel,  a  solitary 
bed,  absence  from  his  Nataly. 

For  their  parts,  the  ladies  were  not  less  shattered.  They 
had  no  triumph  in  their  victory :  the  weight  of  it  bore  them 
down.  They  closed,  locked,  shot  the  bolts  and  fastened  the 
chain  of  the  door.  They  had  to  be  reminded  by  the  shaking 
of  their  darling  dog  Tasso's  curly  silky  coat,  that  he  had  not 
taken  his  evening's  trot  to  notify  malefactors  of  his  watch- 
fulness and  official  wrath  at  sound  of  footfall  or  a  fancied 
one.  Without  consultation,  they  •  unbolted  the  door,  and 
Tasso  went  forth,  to  "  compose  his  vesper  hymn,"  as  Mr. 
Posterley  once  remarked  amusingly. 

Though  not  pretending  to  the  Muse's  crown  so  far,  the 
little  dog  had  qualities  to  entrance  the  spinster  sex.  His 
mistresses  talked  of  him ;  of  his  readiness  to  go  forth ;  of 
the  audible  first  line  of  his  hymn  or  sonnet;  of  his  instinct 
telling  him  that  something  was  wrong  in  the  establishment. 
For  most  of  the  servants  at  Moorsedge  were  prostrated  by 
a  fashionable  epidemic ;  a  slight  attack,  the  doctor  said ;  but 
Montague,  the  butler,  had  withdrawn  for  the  nursing  of  his 
wife;  Perrin,  the  footman,  was  confined  to  his  chamber; 
Manton,  the  favourite  maid,  had  appeared  in  the  morning 


THE  ladies'  lapdog  tasso  23l 

with  a  face  that  caused  her  banishment  to  bed;  and  the 
cook,  Mrs.  Bannister,  then  sighingly  agreed  to  send  up  cold 
meat  for  the  ladies'  dinner.  Hence  their  melancholy  in- 
hospitality  to  their  cousin  Victor,  who  had,  in  spite  of  his 
errors,  the  right  to  claim  his  place  at  their  table,  was  "of 
the  blood,"  they  said.  He  was  recognized  as  the  living 
prince  of  it.  His  every  gesture,  every  word,  recalled  the 
General.  The  trying  scene  with  him  had  withered  them, 
they  did  not  speak  of  it ;  each  had  to  the  other  the  look  of 
a  vessel  that  has  come  out  of  a  gale.  Would  they  sleep? 
They  scarcely  dared  ask  it  of  themselves.  They  had  done 
rightly ;  silence  upon  that  reflection  seemed  best.  It  was 
the  silence  of  an  inward  agitation;  still  they  knew  the 
power  of  good  consciences  to  summon  sleep. 

Tasso  was  usually  timed  for  five  minutes.  They  were 
astonished  to  discover  by  the  clock,  that  they  had  given 
him  ten.  He  was  very  quiet :  if  so,  and  for  whatever  he  did, 
he  had  his  reason,  they  said :  he  was  a  dog  endowed  with 
reason:  endowed  —  and  how  they  wished  that  Mr.  Stuart 
Eem  would  admit  it !  —  with,  their  love  of  the  little  dog 
believed  (and  Mr.  Posterley  acquiesced),  a  soul.  Do  but 
think  it  of  dear  animals,  and  any  form  of  cruelty  to  them 
becomes  an  impossibility,  Mr.  Stuart  Kem !  But  he  would 
not  be  convinced:  ungenerously  indeed  he  named  Mr. 
Posterley  a  courtier.  The  ladies  could  have  retorted,  that 
Mr.  Posterley  had  not  a  brother  who  was  the  celebrated 
surgeon  Sir  Nicholas  Rem. 

Usually  Tasso  came  running  in  when  the  hall-door  was 
opened  to  him.  Not  a  sound  of  him  could  be  heard.  The 
ladies  blew  his  familiar  whistle.  He  trotted  back  to  a  third 
appeal,  and  was,  unfortunately  for  them,  not  caressed ;  he 
received  reproaches  from  two  forefingers  directed  straight 
at  his  reason.  He  saw  it  and  felt  it.  The  hug  of  him  was 
deferred  to  the  tender  good-night  to  him  in  his  basket  at 
the  foot  of  the  ladies'  beds. 

On  entering  their  spacious  bed-chamber,  they  were  so 
fatigued  that  sleep  appeared  to  their  minds  the  compensat- 
ing logical  deduction.  Miss  Dorothea  suppressed  a  yawn, 
and  inflicted  it  upon  Miss  Virginia,  who  returned  it,  with 
an  apology,  and  immediately  had  her  sister's  hand  on  her 
shoulder,  for  an  attempted  control  of  one  of  the  irresistibles  j 


232  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

a  spectacle  imparting  bitter  shudders  and  sliots  to  the  sym- 
pathetic jawbones  of  an  observer.  Hand  at  mouth,  for  not 
in  privacy  would  they  have  been  guilty  of  exposing  a 
grimace,  they  signified,  under  an  interim  smile,  their 
maidenly  submission  to  the  ridiculous  force  of  nature  :  after 
which,  Miss  Virginia  retired  to  the  dressing-room,  absorbed 
in  woeful  recollection  of  the  resolute  No  they  had  been 
compelled  to  reiterate,  in  response  to  the  most  eloquent  and, 
saving  for  a  single  instance,  admirable  man,  their  cousin, 
the  representative  of  "the  blood,"  supplicating  them.  A 
recreant  thankfulness  coiled  within  her  bosom  at  the 
thought,  that  Dorothea,  true  to  her  office  of  speaker,  had 
tasked  herself  with  the  cruel  utterance  and  repetition  of  the 
word.  Victor's  wonderful  eyes,  his  voice,  yet  more  than  his 
urgent  pleas ;  and  also,  in  the  midst  of  his  fiery  flood  of 
speech,  his  gentleness,  his  patience,  pathos,  and  a  man's 
tone  through  it  all,  —  were  present  to  her. 

Disrobed,  she  knocked  at  the  door. 

"I  have  called  to  you  twice,"  Dorothea  said;  and  she 
looked  a  motive  for  the  call. 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  said  Virginia,  with  faltering  sweetness, 
with  a  terrible  divination. 

The  movement  of  a  sigh  was  made.  "  Are  you  aware  of 
anything,  dear?  " 

Virginia  was  taken  with  the  contrary  movement  of  a  sniff. 

But  the  fear  informing  it  prevented  it  from  being  venture- 
some. Doubt  of  the  pure  atmosphere  of  their  bed-chamber, 
appeared  to  her  as  too  heretic  even  for  the  positive  essay. 
In  affirming,  that  she  was  not  aware  of  anything,  her  sight 
fell  on  Tasso.-  His  eyeballs  were  those  of  a  little  dog  that 
has  been  awfully  questioned. 

"  It  is  more  than  a  suspicion,"  said  Dorothea ;  and  plainly 
now,  while  open  to  the  seductions  of  any  pleasing  infidel 
testimony,  her  nose  in  repugnance  convicted  him  absolutely. 

Virginia's  nose  was  lowered  a  few  inches  ;  it  inhaled  and 
stopped  midway.  "You  must  be  mistaken,  dear.  He 
never  .  ,  ." 

"  But  you  are  insensible  to  the  .  .  .  "  Dorothea's  eye- 
lids fainted. 

Virginia  dismissed  the  forlornest  of  efforts  at  incredulity. 
A  whiff  of  Tasso  had  smitten  her.     "Ah!"  she  exclaimed 


THE  ladies'  lapdog  tasso  233 

and  fell  away.  "Is  it  Tasso!  How  was  it  you  noticed 
nothing  before  undressing,  dear  ?  " 

"  Thinking  of  what  we  have  gone  through  to-night !  I 
forgot  him.  At  last  the  very  strange  .  .  .  The  like  of  it  I 
have  not  ever  !  .  .  .  And  upon  that  thick  coat !  And,  dear, 
it  is  late.    We  are  in  the  morning  hours. ^' 

"But,  my  dear  —  Oh,  dear,  what  is  to  be  done  with 
him  ?  '^ 

That  was  the  crucial  point  for  discussion.  They  had  no 
servant  to  give  them  aid;  Manton,  they  could  not  dream  of 
disturbing.  And  Tasso's  character  was  in  the  estimate ;  he 
hated  washing ;  it  balefully  depraved  his  temper  ;  and  not 
only,  creature  of  habit  that  he  was,  would  he  decline  to  lie 
down  anywhere  save  in  their  bedroom,  he  would  lament, 
plead,  insist  unremittingly,  if  excluded;  terrifying  every 
poor  invalid  of  the  house.  Then  again,  were  they  at  this 
late  hour  to  dress  themselves  and  take  him  downstairs,  and 
light  a  fire  in  the  kitchen,  and  boil  sufficient  water  to  give 
him  a  bath  and  scrubbing  ?  Cold  water  would  be  death  to 
him.  Besides,  he  would  ring  out  his  alarum  for  the  house 
to  hear,  pour  out  all  his  poetry,  poor  dear,  as  Mr.  Posterley 
called  it,  at  a  touch  of  cold  water.  The  catastrophe  was 
one  to  weep  over,  the  dilemma  a  trial  of  the  strongest 
intelligences. 

In  addition  to  reviews  of  their  solitary  alternative  — the 
having  of  a  befouled,  degraded  little  dog  in  their  chamber 
through  the  night,  they  were  subjected  to  a  conflict  of 
emotions  when  eyeing  him :  and  there  came  to  them  the 
painful,  perhaps  irreverent,  perhaps  uncharitable,  thought: 
—  that  the  sinner  who  has  rolled  in  the  abominable,  must 
cleanse  him  and  do  things  to  polish  him  and  perfume  be- 
fore again  embraced  even  by  the  mind :  if  indeed  we  can 
ever  have  our  old  sentiment  for  him  again !  Mr.  Stuart 
Rem  might  decide  it  for  them.  Nay,  before  even  the  heart 
embraces  him,  he  must  completely  purify  himself.  That  is 
to  say,  the  ordinary  human  sinner  —  save  when  a  relative. 
Contemplating  Tasso,  the  hearts  of  the  ladies  gushed  out  in 
pity  of  an  innocent  little  dog,  knowing  not  evil,  dependent 
on  his  friends  for  help  to  be  purified ;  —  necessarily  kept  at 
a  distance :  the  very  look  of  him  prescribed  extreme  sepa- 
ration, as  far  as  practicable.     But  they  had  proof  of  a  love 


234  ONE   OF  OUR  CONQUEROBS 

almost  greater  than  it  was  previous  to  the  offence,  in  the 
tender  precautions  they  took  to  elude  repulsion. 

He  was  rolling  on  the  rug,  communicating  contagion. 
Flasks  of  treble-distilled  lavender  water,  and  their  favourite, 
traditional  in  the  family,  eau  d' Arquebusade,  were  on  the 
toilet-table.  They  sprinkled  his  basket,  liberally  sprinkled 
the  rug  and  the  little  dog.  Perfume-pastilles  were  in  one 
of  the  sitting-rooms  below;  and  Virginia  would  have  gone 
down  softly  to  fetch  a  box,  but  Dorothea  restrained  her,  in 
pity  for  the  servants,  with  the  remark:  "  It  would  give  us 
a  nightmare  of  a  Koman  Catholic  Cathedral!"  A  bit  of 
the  window  was  lifted  by  Dorothea,  cautiously,  that  prowl- 
ing outsiders  might  not  be  attracted.  Tasso  was  wooed  to 
his  basket.  He  seemed  inquisitive  ;  the  antidote  of  his 
naughtiness  excited  him  ;  his  tail  circled  after  his  muzzle 
several  times  ;  then  he  lay.  A  silken  scarf  steeped  in  eatt 
d'Arquebusade  was  flung  across  him. 

Their  customary  devout  observances  concluded,  lights 
were  extinguished,  and  the  ladies  kissed,  and  entered  their 
beds. 

Their  beds  were  not  homely  to  them.  Dorothea  thought 
that  Virginia  was  long  in  settling  herself.  Virginia  did 
not  like  the  sound  of  Dorothea's  double  sigh.  Both  listened 
anxiously  for  the  doings  of  Tasso.     He  rested. 

He  was  uneasy;  he  was  rounding  his  basket  once  more; 
unaware  of  the  exaggeration  of  his  iniquitous  conduct,  poor 
innocent,  he  shook  that  dreadful  coat  of  his !  He  had  dis- 
placed the  prophylactic  cover  of  the  scarf. 

He  drove  them  in  a  despair  to  speculate  on  the  contention 
between  the  perfume  and  the  stench  in  junction,  with  such 
a  doubt  of  the  victory  of  which  of  the  two,  as  drags  us  to 
fear  our  worst.  It  steals  into  our  nostrils,  possesses  them. 
As  the  History  of  Mankind  has  informed  us,  we  were  led 
up  to  our  civilization  by  the  nose.  But  Philosophy  warns 
us  on  that  eminence,  to  beware  of  trusting  exclusively  to 
our  conductor,  lest  the  mind  of  us  at  least  be  plunged  back 
into  barbarism.  The  ladies  hated  both  the  cause  and  the 
consequence,  they  had  a  revulsion  from  the  object,  of  the 
above  contention.  But  call  it  not  a  contention :  there  is 
nobility  in  that.  This  was  a  compromise,  a  degrading  union, 
with  very  sickening  results.     Whether  they  came  of  an 


THE  ladies'  lapbog  tasso  235 

excess  of  the  sprinkling,  could  not  well  be  guessed.  The 
drenching  at  least  was  righteously  intended. 

Beneath  their  shut  eyelids,  they  felt  more  and  more  the 
oppression  of  a  darkness  not  laden  with  slumber.  They 
saw  it  in  solidity;  themselves  as  restless  billows,  driven 
dashing  to  the  despondent  sigh.     Sleep  was  denied  thern^,^ 

Tasso  slept.  He  had  sinned  unknowingly,  and  that  is 
not  a  spiritual  sin;  the  chastisement  confers  the  pardon. 

But  why  was  this  ineffable  blessing  denied  to  them  ? 
Was  it  that  they  might  have  a  survey  of  all  the  day's 
deeds  and  examine  them  under  the  cruel  black  beams  of 
Insomnia  ? 

Virginia  said:  "You  are  wakeful." 

"Thoughtful,"  was  the  answer. 

A  century  of  the  midnight  rolled  on. 

Dorothea  said :  "  He  behaved  very  beautifully. " 

"I  looked  at  the  General's  portrait  while  he  besought 
us,"  Virginia  replied. 

"  One  sees  him  in  Victor,  at  Victor's  age.    Try  to  sleep." 

"I  do.     I  pray  that  you  may." 

Silence  courted  slumber.  Their  interchange  of  speech 
from  the  posture  of  bodies  on  their  backs,  had  been  low 
and  deliberate,  in  the  tone  of  the  vaults.  Dead  silence 
recalled  the  strangeness  of  it.  The  night  was  breathless; 
their  open  window  a  peril  bestowing  no  boon.  They  were 
mutually  haunted  by  sound  of  the  gloomy  query  at  the  nos- 
trils of  each  when  drawing  the  vital  breath.  But  for  that, 
they  thought  they  might  have  slept. 

Bed  spake  to  bed : 

"The  words  of  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  last  Sunday!" 

"  He  said:  '  Be  just.'     Could  one  but  see  direction!  " 

"  In  obscurity,  feeling  is  a  guide." 

"The  heart." 

"  It  may  sometimes  be  followed." 

"When  it  concerns  the  family." 

"He  would  have  the  living,  who  are  seeking  peace,  be 
just." 

"Not  to  assume  the  seat  of  justice." 

Again  they  lay  as  tombstone  effigies,  that  have  com- 
mitted the  passage  of  affairs  to  another  procession  of  the 
Ages. 


^36  ONE  OF   OUR   CONQUEPwORS 

There  was  a  gentle  sniff,  in  hopeless  confirmation  of  the 
experience  of  its  predecessors.     A  sister  to  it  ensued. 

"Could  Victor  have  spoken  so,  without  assurance  in  his 
conscience,  that  his  entreaty  was  righteously  addressed  to 
us  ?  that  we  .  .  .'' 

"  And  no  others ! " 

"I  think  of  his  language.     He  loves  the  child." 

"In  heart  as  in  mind,  he  is  eminently  gifted;  acknowl- 
edgeing  error." 

"  He  was  very  young." 

The  huge  funereal  minutes  conducted  their  sonorous 
hearse,  the  hour. 

It  struck  in  the  bedroom  Three. 

No  more  than  three  of  the  clock,  it  was  the  voice  telling 
of  half  the  precious  restorative  night  hours  wasted. 

Now ,  as  we  close  our  eyelids  when  we  would  go  to  sleep, 
so  must  we,  in  expectation  of  the  peace  of  mind  granting 
us  the  sweet  oblivion,  preliminarily  do  something  which 
invokes,  that  we  may  obtain  it. 

"Dear,"  Dorothea  said. 

"I  know  indeed,"  said  Virginia. 

"  We  may  have  been !  " 

"Not  designingly." 

"Indeed  not.  But  harsh  it  maybe  named,  if  the  one 
innocent  is  to  be  the  sufferer." 

"The  child  can  in  no  sense  be  adjudged  guilty." 

"It  is  Victor's  child." 

"He  adores  the  child." 

Wheels  were  in  mute  motion  within  them ;  and  presently 
the  remark  was  tossed-up : 

"In  his  coming  to  us,  it  is  possible  to  see  paternal 
solicitude." 

Thence  came  fruit  of  reflection : 

"  To  be  instrumental  as  guides  to  a  tender  young  life ! " 

Reflection  heated  with  visions : 

"  Once  our  dream ! " 

They  had  the  happier  feeling  of  composure,  though 
Tasso  possessed  the  room.  Not  Tasso,  but  a  sublimated 
offensiveness,  issue  of  the  antagonistically  combined, 
dispersed  to  be  the  more  penetrating;  insomuch  that  it 
seemed  to  them  they  could  not  ever  again  make  use  of 


THE  ladies'  lapdog  tasso  237 

eau  d^ Arquebusade  without  the  vitiating  reminder.  So  true 
were  the  words  of  Mr.  Stuart  Rem:  "Half  measures  to 
purification  are  the  most  delusive  of  our  artifices."  Fatigue 
and  its  reflections  helped  to  be  peacefuller.  Their  souls 
were  mounting  to  a  serenity  above  the  nauseating  degrada- 
tion, to  which  the  poor  little  dog  had  dragged  them. 

"Victor  gave  his  promise."  ^^~ 

"  At  least,  concession  would  not  imply  contact  with  the 
guilty." 

Both  sighed  as  they  took-up  the  burden  of  the  vaporous 
Tasso  to  drop  him;  with  the  greater  satisfaction  in  the 
expelling  of  their  breath. 

"  It  might  be  said,  dear,  that  concession  to  his  entreaty 
does  not  in  any  way  countenance  the  sin." 

"I  can  see,  dear,  how  it  might  be  read  as  a  reproof." 

Their  exchange  of  sentences  followed  meditative  pauses ; 
Dorothea  leading. 

"To  one  so  sensitive  as  Victor !  " 

"  A  month  or  two  of  our  society  for  the  child ! " 

"It  is  not  the  length  of  time." 

"The  limitation  assures  against  maternal  claims." 

"She  would  not  dare." 

"He  uses  the  words:  *  her  serious  respect'  for  us.  I 
should  not  wish  to  listen  to  him  often." 

"We  listen  to  a  higher." 

"It  may  really  be,  that  the  child  is  like  him." 

"Not  resembling  Mr.  Stuart  Rem's  Clementina!" 

"  A  week  of  that  child  gave  us  our  totally  sleepless  night." 

"One  thinks  more  hopefully  of  a  child  of  Victor's." 

"He  would  preponderate." 

"He  would." 

They  sighed ;  but  it  was  now  with  the  relief  of  a  light- 
ened oppression. 

"If,  dear,  in  truth  the  father's  look  is  in  the  child,  he 
has  the  greater  reason  to  desire  for  her  a  taste  of  our 
atmosphere." 

" Do  not  pursue  it.     Sleep." 

"  One  prayer ! "  ^^ 

"Your  mention  of  our  atmosphere,  dear,  destroys  my 
power  to  frame  one.  Do  you,  for  two.  But  I  would 
cleanse  my  heart." 


238  ONE  OF  OUE.  CONQUEBORS 

"There  is  none  purer." 

"Hush." 

Virginia  spoke  a  more  fervent  word  of  praise  of  her 
sister,  and  had  not  the  hushing  response  to  it.  She  heard 
the  soft  regular  breathing.  Her  own  was  in  downy  fellow- 
ship with  it  a  moment  later. 

At  the  hour  of  nine,  in  genial  daylight,  sitting  over  the 
crumbs  of  his  hotel  breakfast,  Victor  received  a  little  note 
that  bore  the  handwriting  of  Dorothea  Duvidney. 

"  Dear  Victor,  we  are  prepared  to  receive  the  child  for  a 
month.    In  haste,  before  your  train.    Our  love.    D.  and  V." 

His  face  flashed  out  of  cloud. 

A  more  precious  document  had  never  been  handed  to 
him.  It  chased  back  to  midnight  the  doubt  hovering  over 
his  belief  in  himself ;  —  phrased  to  say,  that  he  was  no 
longer  the  Victor  Kadnor  known  to  the  world.  And  it 
extinguished  a  corpse-light  recollection  of  a  baleful  dream 
in  the  night.  Here  shone  radiant  witness  of  his  being  th^ 
very  man;  save  for  the  spot  of  his  recent  confusion  in 
distinguishing  his  identity  or  in  feeling  that  he  stood 
whole  and  solid.  —  Because  of  two  mature  maiden  ladies  ? 
Yes,  because  of  two  maiden  ladies,  my  good  fellow.  And 
friend  Colney,  you  know  the  ladies,  and  what  the  getting 
round  them  for  one's  purposes  really  means. 

The  sprite  of  Colney  Durance  had  struck  him  smartly 
overnight.  Victor's  internal  crow  was  over  Colney  now. 
And  when  you  have  the  optimist  and  pessimist  acutely 
opposed  in  a  mixing  group,  they  direct  lively  conversations 
at  one  another  across  the  gulf  of  distance,  even  of  time. 
For  a  principle  is  involved,  besides  the  knowledge  of  the 
other's  triumph  or  dismay.  The  couple  are  scales  of  a 
balance ;  and  not  before  last  night  had  Victor  ever  con- 
sented to  think  of  Colney  ascending  while  he  dropped  low 
to  graze  the  pebbles. 

He  left  his  hotel  for  the  station,  singing  the  great  aria 
of  the  fourth  Act  of  the  Favoritcu:  neglected  since  that 
mighty  German  with  his  Bienzi,  and  Tannhdusevy  and 
Tristan  a7id  Isolda,  had  mastered  him,  to  the  displacement 
of  his  boyhood's  beloved  sugary  -inis  and  -ant&s  and  -zettis; 


ENGAGEMENT  239 

had  clearly  mastered,  not  beguiled,  him ;  had  wafted  him 
up  to  a  new  realm,  invigorating  if  severer.  But  now  his 
youth  would  have  its  voice.  He  travelled  up  to  town  with 
Sir  Abraham  Quatley,  and  talked,  and  took  and  gave  hints 
upon  City  and  Commercial  affairs,  while  the  honeyed 
Italian  of  the  conventional,  gloriously  animal,  stress  and 
flutter  had  a  revel  in  his  veins,  now  and  then  mutedly 
ebullient  at  the  mouth :  honeyed,  golden,  rich  in  visions ; 
—  having  surely  much  more  of  Nature's  encouragement  to 
her  children  ? 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
nesta's  engagement 


A  WORD  in  his  ear  from  Fenellan,  touching  that  man 
Blathenoy,  set  the  wheels  of  Victor's  brain  at  work  upon 
his  defences,  for  a  minute,  on  the  walk  Westward.  Who 
knew?  —  who  did  not  know!  He  had  a  torpid  conscious- 
ness that  he  cringed  to  the  world,  with  an  entreaty  to  the 
great  monster  to  hold  olf  in  ignorance ;  and  the  next  in- 
stant, he  had  caught  its  miserable  spies  by  the  lurcher 
neck  and  was  towering.  He  dwelt  on  his  contempt  of 
them,  to  curtain  the  power  they  could  stir. 

"  The  little  woman,  you  say,  took  to  Dartrey  ?  " 

Fenellan,  with  the  usual  apologetic  moderation  of  a 
second  statement,  thought  "there  was  the  look  of  it.'' 

"Well,  we  must  watch  over  her.  Dartrey!  —  but  Dar-^ 
trey  's  an  honest  fellow  with  women.  But  men  are  men. 
Very  few  men  spare  a  woman  when  th^  mad  fit  is  on  her. 
A  little  woman  —  pretty  little  woman! — wife  to  Jacob 
Blathenoy  !  She  must  n't  at  her  age  have  any  close  choos- 
ing —  under  her  hand.  And  Dartrey  's  just  the  figure  to 
strike  a  spark  in  a  tinder-box  head." 

"  With  a  husband  who  'd  reduce  Minerva's  to  tinder,  after 
a  month  of  him  !  " 

"He  spent  his  honeymoon  at  his  place  at  Wrensham; 
told  me  so."  Blathenoy  had  therefore  then  heard  of  the 
building  of  Lakelands  by  the  Victor  Kadnor  of  the  Cityj 


240  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

and  had  then,  we  guess  —  in  the  usual  honeymoon  boasting 
of  a  windbag  with  his  bride  —  wheezed  the  foul  gossip,  to 
hide  his  emptiness  and  do  duty  for  amusement  of  the  pretty 
little  caged  bird.  Probably  so.  But  Victor  knew  that 
Blathenoy  needed  him  and  feared  him.  Probably  the  wife 
had  been  enjoined  to  keep  silence ;  for  the  Blachingtons, 
Pannings  and  others  were,  it  could  be  sworn,  blank  and 
unscratched  folio  sheets  on  the  subject :  —  as  yet ;  unless 
Mrs.  Burman  had  dropped  venom. 

"  One  pities  the  little  woman,  eh,  Penellan  ?  " 

"Dartrey  won't  be  back  for  a  week  or  so;  and  they  're  off 
!to  Switzerland,  after  the  dinner  they  give.  I  heard  from 
him  this  morning;  one  of  the  Clanconans  is  ill." 

"Lucky.  But  wherever  Blathenoy  takes  her,  he  must 
be  the  same  '  arid  bore,'  as  old  Colney  says." 

"A  domestic  simoom,"  said  Penellan,  booming  it:  and 
tVictor  had  a  shudder. 

.'  "Awful  thing,  marriage,  to  some  women!  We  chain 
them  to  that  domestic  round;  most  of  them  have  n't  the 
means  of  independence  or  a  chance  of  winning  it ;  and  all 
that 's  open  to  them,  if  they  've  made  a  bad  cast  for  a  mate 
- — and  good  Lord  !  how  are  they  to  know  before  it 's  too 
late !  —  they  have  n't  a  choice  except  to  play  tricks  or 
jump  to  the  deuce  or  sit  and  ^  drape  in  blight, '  as  Colney 
has  it;;- though  his  notion  of  the  optional  marriages, 
broken  or  renewed  every  seven  years !  —  if  he  means  it. 
You  never  know,  with  him.  It  sounds  like  another  squirt 
of  savage  irony.     It's  donkey  nonsense,  eh?" 

"The  very  hee-haw  of  nonsense,"  Penellan  acquiesced. 

"Come,  come;  read  your  Scriptures;  donkeys  have 
shown  wisdom,"  Victor  said,  rather  leaning  to  the  theme 
of  a  fretfulness  of  women  in  the  legal  yoke.  "They're 
donkeys  till  we  know  them  for  prophets.  Who  can  tell ! 
Colney  may  be  hailed  for  one  fifty  years  hence." 

Penellan  was  not  invited  to  enter  the  house,  although 
the  loneliness  of  his  lodgeings  was  known,  and  also,  that 
he  played  whist  at  his  Club.  Victor  had  grounds  for  turn- 
ing to  him  at  the  door  and  squeezing  his  hand  warmly,  by 
way  of  dismissal.  In  ascribing  them  to  a  weariness  at 
Penellan's  perpetual  acquiescence,  he  put  the  cover  on 
them,  and  he  stamped  it  with  a  repudiation  of  tlie  charge, 


241 

that  Colney's  views  upon  the  great  Marriage  Question 
were  the  "very  hee-haw  of  nonsense."  They  were  not  the 
hee-haw;  in  fact,  viewing  the  host  of  marriages,  they  were 
for  discussion;  there  was  no  bray  about  them.  He  could 
not  feel  them  to  be  absurd  while  Mrs.  Burman's  tenure  of 
existence  barred  the  ceremony.  Anything  for  a  phrase !  he 
murmured  of  Fenellan's  talk;  calling  him.  Dear  old  boy, 
to  soften  the  slight. 

Nataly  had  not  seen  Fenellan  or  heard  from  Dartrey; 
so  she  continued  to  be  uninformed  of  her  hero's  release; 
and  that  was  in  the  order  of  happy  accidents.  She  had 
hardly  to  look  her  interrogation  for  the  news;  it  radiated. 
But  he  stated  such  matter-of-course  briefly.  "The  good 
ladies  are  ready  to  receive  our  girl." 

Her  chagrin  resolved  to  a  kind  of  solace  of  her  draggled 
pride,  in  the  idea,  that  he  who  tamed  everybody  to  submis- 
sion, might  well  have  command  of  her. 

The  note,  signed  D.  and  V.,  was  shown. 

There  stood  the  words.  And  last  night  she  had  been 
partly  of  the  opinion  of  Colney  Durance.  Sh6  sank  down 
among  the  unreasoning  abject;  —  not  this  time  with  her 
perfect  love  of  him,  but  with  a  resistance  and  a  dubiety 
under  compression.  For  she  had  not  quite  comprehended 
why  Nesta  should  go.  This  readiness  of  the  Duvidney 
ladies  to  receive  the  girl,  stopped  her  mental  inquiries. 

She  begged  for  a  week's  delay;  "before  the  parting,"  as 
her  dear  old  silly  mother's  pathos  whimpered  it,  of  the 
separation  for  a  month  !  and  he  smiled  and  hummed  pleas- 
antly at  any  small  petition,  thinking  her  in  error  to  expect 
Dartrey 's  return  to  town  before  the  close  of  a  week;  and 
then  wondering  at  women,  mildly  denouncing  in  his  heart 
the  mothers  who  ran  risk  of  disturbing  their  daughters' 
bosoms  with  regard  to  particular  heroes  married  or  not. 
Dartrey  attracted  women :  he  was  one  of  the  men  who  do  it 
without  effort.  Victor's  provident  mind  blamed  the  mother 
for  the  indiscreetness  of  her  wish  to  have  him  among  them. 
But  Dudley  had  been  making  way  bravely  of  late;  he 
improved;  he  began  to  bloom,  like  a  Spring  flower  of  the 
garden  protected  from  frosts  under  glass ;  and  Fredi  was 
the  sheltering  and  nourishing  bestower  of  the  lessons. 
One  could  see,  his  questions   and  other  little  points  re- 

16 


242  ONE   OF   OUR  CONQUEKOES 

vealed,  that  he  had  a  certain  lover's  dread  of  Dartrey 
Fenellan;  a  sort  of  jealousy:  Victor  understood  the  feeling. 
To  love  a  girl,  who  has  her  ideal  of  a  man  elsewhere  in 
another,  though  she  may  know  she  never  can  wed  the  man, 
and  has  not  the  hope  of  it,  is  torment  to  the  lover  quail- 
ing, as  we  do  in  this  terrible  season  of  the  priceless  deli- 
ciousness,  stripped  against  all  the  winds  that  blow;  skin- 
less at  times.  One  gets  up  a  sympathy  for  the  poor  shy 
dependent  shivering  lover.  Nevertheless,  here  was  young 
Dudley  waking,  visibly  becoming  bolder.  As  in  the  flute- 
duets,  he  gained  fire  from  concert.  The  distance  between 
Cronidge  and  Moorsedge  was  two  miles  and  a  quarter. 

Instead  of  the  delay  of  a  whole  week,  Victor  granted  four 
days,  which  embraced  a  musical  evening  at  Mrs.  John 
Cormyn's  on  the  last  of  the  days,  when  Nesta  was  engaged 
to  sing  with  her  mother  a  duet  of  her  own  composition, 
the  first  public  fruit  of  her  lessons  in  counterpoint  from 
rigid  Herr  Strauscher,  who  had  said  what  he  had  said,  in 
letting  it  pass:  eulogy,  coming  from  him.  So  Victor 
heard,  and  he  doated  on  the  surprise  to  come  for  him,  in  a 
boyish  anticipation.  The  girPs  little  French  ballads  under 
tutelage  of  Louise  de  Seilles  promised,  though  they  were 
imitative.  If  Strauscher  let  this  pass  .  .  .  Victor  saw 
Grand  Opera  somewhere  to  follow ;  England's  claim  to  be  a 
creative  musical  nation  vindicated :  and  the  genius  of  the 
fair  sex  as  well. 

He  heard  the  duet  at  Mrs.  Cormyn's;  and  he  imagined 
a  hearing  of  his  Fredi's  Opera,  and  her  godmother's  delight 
in  it;  the  once-famed  Sanfredini's  consent  to  be  the  dii-a 
at  a  rehearsal,  and  then  her  compelling  her  hidalgo  duque 
to  consent  further :  an  event  not  inconceivable.  For  here 
was  downright  genius;  the  flowering  aloe  of  the  many 
years  in  formation;  and  Colney  admitted  the  song  to 
have  a  streak  of  genius;  though  he  would  pettishly  and 
stupidly  say,  that  our  modern  newspaper  Press  is  able  now 
to  force  genius  for  us  twenty  or  so  to  the  month,  excluding 
Sundays  —  our  short  pauses  for  the  incubation  of  it.  Eeal 
rare  genius  was  in  that  song,  nothing  forced;  and  exquisite 
melody;  one  of  those  melodies  which  fling  gold  chains 
about  us  and  lead  us  off,  lead  us  back  into  Eden.  Victor 
bummed  at  bars  of  it  on  the  drive  homeward.    His  darlings 


nesta's  exgagement  243 

had  to  sing  it  again  in  the  half -lighted  drawing-room. 
The  bubble-happiness  of  the  three  was  vexed  only  by  tid- 
ings heard  from  Colney  during  the  evening  of  a  renewed 
instance  of  Skepsey's  misconduct.  Priscilla  Graves  had 
hurried  away  to  him  at  the  close  of  Mr.  John  Cormyn's 
Concert,  in  consequence ;  in  grief  and  in  sympathy.  Skep- 
sey  was  to  appear  before  the  magistrate  next  morning,  for 
having  administered  physical  chastisement  to  his  wife 
during  one  of  her  fits  of  drunkenness.  Colney  had  seen 
him.  His  version  of  the  story  was  given,  however,  in  the 
objectionable  humorous  manner:  none  could  gather  from  it 
of  what  might  be  pleaded  for  Skepsey.  His  "lesson  to 
his  wife  in  the  art  of  pugilism,  before  granting  her  Cap- 
tain's rank  among  the  Defensive  Amazons  of  Old  Eng- 
land," was  the  customary  patent  absurdity.  But  it  was 
odd,  that  Skepsey  always  preferred  his  appeal  for  help 
to  Colney  Durance.  Nesta  proposed  following  Priscilla 
that  night.  She  had  hinted  her  wish,  on  the  way  home ; 
she  was  urgent,  beseeching,  when  her  father  lifted  praises 
of  her:  she  had  to  start  with  her  father  by  the  train  at 
seven  in  the  morning,  and  she  could  not  hear  of  poor 
Skepsey  for  a  number  of  hours.  She  begged  a  day's  delay ; 
which  would  enable  her,  she  said,  to  join  them  in  dining 
at  the  Blachington's,  and  seeing  dear  Lakelands  again. 
"I  was  invited,  you  know."  She  spoke  in  childish  style, 
and  under  her  eyes  she  beheld  her  father  and  mother  ex- 
change looks.  He  had  a  fear  that  Nataly  might  support 
the  girl's  petition.  Nataly  read  him  to  mean,  possible 
dangers  among  the  people  at  Wrensham.  She  had  seemed 
hesitating.  After  meeting  Victor's  look,  her  refusal  was 
firm.  She  tried  to  make  it  one  of  distress  for  the  use  of 
the  hard  word  to  her  own  dear  girl.     Nesta  spied  beneath. 

But  what  was  it  ?  There  was  a  reason  for  her  going ! 
She  had  a  right  to  stay,  and  see  and  talk  with  Captain 
Dartrey,  and  she  was  to  be  deported ! 

So  now  she  set  herself  to  remember  little  incidents  at 
Creckholt:  particularly  a  conversation  in  a  very  young 
girl's  hearing,  upon  Sir  Humphrey  and  Lady  Pottil's 
behaviour  to  the  speakers,  her  parents.  She  had  then,  and 
she  now  had,  an  extraordinary  feeling,  as  from  a  wind 
striking  upon  soft  summer  weather  off  regions  of  ice,  that 


244  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

she  was  in  her  parents'  way.  How  ?  The  feeling  was 
irrational ;  it  could  give  her  no  reply,  or  only  the  multi- 
tudinous which  are  the  question  violently  repeated.  She 
slept  on  it. 

She  and  her  father  breakfasted  by  the  London  birds' 
first  twitter.  They  talked  of  Skepsey.  She  spoke  of  her 
going  as  exile.  "No,"  said  he,  "you're  sure  to  meet 
friends." 

Her  cheeks  glowed.  It  came  wholly  through  the  sud- 
denness of  the  recollection,  that  the  family-seat  of  one 
among  the  friends  was  near  the  Wells. 

He  was  allowed  to  fancy,  as  it  suited  him  to  fancy,  that 
a  vivid  secret  pleasure  laid  the  colour  on  those  ingenuous 
fair  cheeks. 

"  A  solitary  flute  for  me,  for  a  month  !  I  shall  miss  my 
sober  comrade :  got  the  habit  of  duetting:  and  he 's  gentle, 
bears  with  me." 

Tears  lined  her  eyelids.  "  Who  would  not  be,  dearest 
dada !     But  there  is  nothing  to  bear  except  the  honour." 

"  You  like  him  ?  You  and  I  always  have  the  same  tastes, 
Eredi." 

Now  there  was  a  reddening  of  the  sun  at  the  mount ;  all 
the  sky  aflame.  How  could  he  know  that  it  was  not  the 
heart  in  the  face  !  She  reddened  because  she  had  perused 
his  wishes  ;  had  detected  a  scheme  striking  off  from  them, 
and  knew  a  man  to  be  the  object  of  it ;  and  because  she  had 
at  the  same  time  the  sense  of  a  flattery  in  her  quick  divina- 
tion ;  and  she  was  responsively  emotional,  her  blood  virginal ; 
often  it  was  a  tropical  lightning. 

It  looked  like  the  heart  doing  rich  painter's  work  on 
maiden  features.  Victor  was  naturally  as  deceived  as  he 
wished  to  be. 

From  his  being  naturally  so,  his  remarks  on  Dudley  had 
an  air  of  embracing  him  as  one  of  the  family.  "  His  manner 
to  me  just  hits  me." 

"  I  like  to  see  him  with  you,"  she  said. 

Her  father  let  his  tongue  run :  "  One  of  the  few  young 
men  I  feel  perfectly  at  home  with !  I  do  like  dealing  with 
a  gentleman.  I  can  confide  in  a  gentleman  :  honour,  heart, 
whatever  I  hold  dearest." 

There  he  stopped,  not  too  soon.     The  girl  was  mute,  fully 


nesta's  engagement  245 

agreeing,  slightly  hardening.  She  had  a  painful  sense  of 
separation  from  her  dear  Louise.  And  it  was  now  to  be 
from  her  mother  as  well :  she  felt  the  pain  when  kissing  her 
mother  in  bed.  But  this  was  moderated  bj^  the  prospect  of 
a  holiday  away  out  of  reach  of  ivlr.  Barmby 's  pursuing  voice, 
whom  her  mother  favoured :  and  her  mother  was  concealing 
something  from  her  ;  so  she  could  not  make  the  confidante 
of  her  mother.  Nataly  had  no  forewarnings.  Her  simple 
regrets  filled  her  bosom.  All  night  she  had  been  taking  her 
chastisement,  and  in  the  morning  it  seemed  good  to  her,  that 
she  should  be  denuded,  for  her  girl  to  learn  the  felicity  of 
having  relatives. 

For  some  reason,  over  which  Xataly  mused  in  the  suc- 
ceeding hours,  the  girl  had  not  spoken  of  any  visit  her 
mother  was  to  pay  to  the  Duvidney  ladies  or  they  to  her. 
Latterly  she  had  not  alluded  to  her  mother's  family.  It 
might  mean,  that  the  beloved  and  dreaded  was  laying  finger 
on  a  dark  thing  in  the  dark ;  reading  syllables  by  touch ; 
keeping  silence  over  the  communications  to  a  mind  not  yet 
actively  speculative,  as  it  is  a  way  with  young  women. 
"  With  young  women  educated  for  the  market,  to  be  timorous, 
consequently  secretive,  rather  snaky,"  Colney  Durance  had 
said.  Her  Nesta  was  not  one  of  the  "  framed  and  glazed '' 
description,  cited  by  him,  for  an  example  of  the  triumph  of 
the  product ;  "  exactly  harmonious  with  the  ninny  male's 
ideal  of  female  innocence."  N"o ;  but  what  if  the  mother 
had  opened  her  heart  to  her  girl  ?  It  had  been  of  late  her 
wish  or  a  dream,  shaping  hourly  to  a  design,  now  positively 
to  go  through  that  furnace.  Her  knowledge  of  Victor's 
objection,  restrained  an  impulse  that  had  not  won  spring 
enough  to  act  against  his  counsel  or  vivify  an  intelligence 
grown  dull  in  slavery  under  him,  with  regard  to  the  one 
seeming  right  course.  The  adoption  of  it  would  have 
wounded  him  —  therefore  her.  She  had  thought  of  him 
first ;  she  had  also  thought  of  herself,  and  she  blamed  herself 
now.  She  went  so  far  as  to  think,  that  Victor  was  guilty  of 
the  schemer's  error  of  counting  human  creatures  arithmeti- 
cally, in  the  sum,  without  the  estimate  of  distinctive  qualities 
and  value  here  and  there.  His  return  to  a  shivering  sensi- 
tiveness on  the  subject  of  his  girl's  enlightenment  *^just 
yet,"  for  which  Nataly  pitied  and  loved  him,  sharing  it,  with 


246  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

humiliation  for  doing  so,  became  finally  her  excuse.  We 
must  have  some  excuse,  if  we  would  keep  to  life. 

Skepsey^s  case  appeared  in  the  evening  papers.  He  con- 
fessed ''  frankly,"  he  said,  to  the  magistrate,  that,  "  acting 
under  temporary  exasperation,  he  had  lost  for  a  moment  a 
man's  proper  self-command.''  He  was  as  frank  in  stating, 
that  he  "  occupied  the  prisoner's  place  before  his  Worship  a 
second  time,  and  was  a  second  time  indebted  to  the  gentle- 
man, Mr.  Colney  Durance,  who  so  kindly  stood  by  him." 
There  was  hilarity  in  the  Court  at  his  quaint  sententious 
envelopment  of  the  idiom  of  the  streets,  which  he  delivered 
with  solemnity:  "He  could  only  plead,  not  in  absolute 
justification  —  an  appeal  to  human  sentiments  —  the  feel- 
ings of  a  man  of  the  humbler  orders,  returning  home  in  the 
evening,  and  his  thoughts  upon  things  not  without  their 
importance,  to  find  repeatedlj^  the  guardian  of  his  household 
beastly  drunk,  and  destructive."  Colney  made  the  case  quite 
intelligible  to  the  magistrate  ;  who  gravely  robed  a  strain  of 
the  idiomatic  in  the  officially  awful,  to  keep  in  tune  with 
his  delinquent.  No  serious  harm  had  been  done  to  the 
woman.  Skepsey  was  admonished  and  released.  His  wife 
expressed  her  willingness  to  forgive  him,  now  he  had  got 
his  lesson  ;  and  she  hoped  he  would  understand,  that  there 
was  no  need  for  a  woman  to  learn  pugilism.  Skepsey  would 
have  explained ;  but  the  case  was  over,  he  was  hustled  out. 

However,  a  keen  young  reporter  present  smelt  fun  for 
copy ;  he  followed  the  couple ;  and  in  a  particular  evening 
Journal,  laughable  matter  was  printed  concerning  Skepsey's 
view  of  the  pugilism  to  be  imparted  to  women  for  their 
physical  protection  in  extremity,  and  the  distinction  of  it 
from  the  blow  conveying  the  moral  lesson  to  them  ;  his  wife 
having  objected  to  the  former,  because  it  annoyed  her  and 
he  pestered  her ;  and  she  was  never,  she  said,  ready  to  stand 
up  to  him  for  practice,  as  he  called  it,  except  when  she  had 
taken  more  than  he  thought  wholesome  for  her :  —  he  had 
no  sense.  There  was  a  squabble  between  them,  because  he 
chose  to  scour  away  to  his  master's  office  instead  of  conduct- 
ing her  home  with  the  honours.  Nesta  read  the  young 
reporter's  version,  with  shrieks.  She  led  the  ladies  of 
Moorsedge  to  discover  amusement  in  it. 

At  first,  as  her  letter  to  her  mother  described  them,  they 


nesta's  ekgage:ment  247 

were  like  a  pair  of  pieces  of  costly  China,  with,  the  settled 
smile,  and  cold.  She  saw  but  the  outside  of  them,  and  she 
continued  reporting  the  variations,  which  steadily  deter- 
mined to  warmth.  On  the  night  of  the  third  day,  they 
kissed  her  tenderly  ;  they  were  human  figures. 

No  one  could  be  aware  of  the  trial  undergone  by  the  good 
ladies  in  receiving  her :  Victor's  child ;  but,  as  their  phrase 
would  have  run,  had  they  dared  to  give  it  utterance  to  one 
another,  a  child  of  sin.  How  foreign  to  them,  in  that 
character,  how  strange,  when  she  was  looked  on  as  an 
inhabitant  of  their  house,  they  hardly  dared  to  estimate  ; 
until  the  timorous  estimation,  from  gradually  swelling, 
suddenly  sank;  nature  invaded  them;  they  could  discard 
the  alienating  sense  of  the  taint ;  and  not  only  did  they  no 
longer  fear  the  moment  when  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  or  Mr. 
Posterley  might  call  for  evening  tea,  but  they  consulted 
upon  inviting  the  married  one  of  those  gentlemen,  to  "  divert 
dear  Nesta."  Every  night  she  slept  well.  In  all  she  did, 
she  proved  she  was  "of  the  blood."  She  had  Victor's 
animated  eyes  ;  she  might  have,  they  dreaded  to  think,  his 
eloquence.  They  put  it  down  to  his  eloquence  entirely, 
that  their  resistance  to  his  petition  had  been  overcome,  for 
similarly  with  the  treatment  of  the  private  acts  of  royal 
personages  by  lacquey  History,  there  is,  in  the  minds  of  the 
ultra-civilized,  an  insistance,  that  any  event  having  a  con- 
sequence in  matters  personal  to  them,  be  at  all  hazards 
recorded  with  the  utmost  nicety  in  decency.  By  such  means, 
they  preserve  the  ceremonial  self-respect,  which  is  a  necessity 
of  their  existence  ;  and  so  they  maintain  the  regal  elevation 
over  the  awe-struck  subjects  of  their  interiors ;  who  might 
otherwise  revolt,  pull  down,  scatter,  dishonour,  expose  for  a 
shallow  fiction  the  holiest,  the  most  vital  to  them.  A  dem- 
ocratic evil  spirit  is  abroad,  generated  among  congregations, 
often  perilously  communicating  its  wanton  laughter  to  the 
desperate  wickedness  they  know  (not  solely  through  the 
monition  of  Mr.  Stuart  Kem)  to  lurk  within.  It  has  to  be 
excluded  :  on  certain  points  they  must  not  think.  The  night 
of  Tasso  was  darkly  clouded  in  the  minds  of  the  pure  ladies  : 
a  rift  would  have  seized  their  half-slumbering  sense  of  smell, 
to  revive  the  night,  perhaps  disorder  the  stately  march  of 
their  intelligences. 


248  OJfE  OF   OUR   C0XQUER0R3 

Victor's  eloquence,  Victor's  influence,  Victor's  child :  lie 
carried  them  as  a  floodstream,  insomuch  that  their  reception 
of  this  young  creature  of  the  blot  on  her  birth,  was  regarded 
by  them  in  the  unmentioned  abstract,  and  the  child's 
presence  upon  earth  seen  with  the  indulgence  (without  the 
naughty  curiosity)  of  the  loyal  moral  English  for  the  nu- 
merous offspring  of  the  peccadillos  of  their  monarchs. 
These  things  pass  muster  from  being  "  Britannically  co- 
cooned  in  the  purple,"  says  our  irreverent  satirist;  and  the 
maiden  ladies'  passion  of  devotion  to  "  the  blood  "  helped  to 
blind  them  ;  but  still  more  so  did  the  imperious  urgency  to 
curtain  closely  the  night  of  Tasso,  throwing  all  its  conse- 
quences upon  Victor's  masterful  tongue.  Whence  it  ensued 
(and  here  is  the  danger  for  illogical  individuals  as  well  as  vast 
communities,  who  continue  to  batten  upon  fiction  w^hen  the 
convenience  of  it  has  taken  the  place  of  pleasure),  that  they 
had  need  to  exalt  his  eloquence,  for  a  cloak  to  their  conduct ; 
and  doing  it,  they  fell  into  a  habit  of  yielding  to  him ;  they 
disintegrated  under  him;  rules,  principles,  morality,  were 
shaken  to  some  confusion.  And  still  proceeding  thus,  they 
now  and  then  glanced  back,  more  wonderingly  than  con- 
victed sinners  upon  their  days  of  early  innocence,  at  the 
night  when  successfully  they  withstood  him.  They  who 
had  doubted  of  the  rightness  of  letting  Victor's  girl  come 
into  collision  with  two  clerical  gentlemen,  one  of  whom 
was  married,  permitted  him  now  to  bring  the  Hon.  Dudley 
Sowerby  to  their  house,  and  make  appointments  to  meet  Mr. 
Dudley  Sowerby  under  a  roof  that  sheltered  a  young  lady, 
evidently  the  allurement  to  the  scion  of  aristocracy;  of 
whose  family  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  had  spoken  in  the  very  kind- 
ling hushed  tones,  proper  to  the  union  of  a  sacerdotal  and 
an  English  citizen's  veneration. 

How  would  it  end  ?  And  if  some  day  this  excellent  Mr. 
Dudley  Sowerby  reproached  them !  He  could  not  have  a 
sweeter  bride,  one  more  truly  a  lady  in  education  and 
manners  ;  but  the  birth !  the  child's  name !  Their  trouble 
was  emitted  in  a  vapour  of  interjections.  Very  perplexing 
was  it  for  the  good  ladies  of  strict  principles  to  reflect,  as 
dimly  they  did,  that  the  concrete  presence  of  dear  JSTesta 
silenced  and  overcame  objections  to  her  being  upon  earth. 
She  seemed,  as  it  were,  a  draught  of  redoubtable  Nature 


inebriating  morality.  But  would  others  be  similarly  af- 
fected? Victor  might  get  his  release,  to  do  justice  to  the 
mother :  it  would  not  cover  the  child.  Prize  as  they  might 
the  quality  of  the  Eadnor  blood  (drawn  from  the  most 
ancient  of  original  Britain's  princes),  there  was  also  the 
Cantor  blood  for  consideration ;  and  it  was  old,  noble,  proud. 
Would  it  be  satisfied  in  matching  itself  with  great  wealth, 
a  radiant  health,  and  the  good  looks  of  a  young  flower? 
For  the  sake  of  the  dear  girl,  the  ladies  hoped  that  it  would ; 
and  they  enlarged  the  outline  of  their  wedding  present, 
while,  in  their  minds,  the  noble  English  family  which  could 
be  satisfied  so,  was  lowered,  partaking  of  the  taint  they  had 
personally  ceased  to  recognize. 

Of  one  thing  they  were  sure,  and  it  enlisted  them:  the 
gentleman  loved  the  girl.  Her  love  of  him,  had  it  been 
prominent  to  view,  would  have  stirred  a  feminine  sigh,  not 
more,  except  a  feminine  lecture  to  follow.  She  was  quite 
uninflamed,  fresh  and  cool  as  a  spring.  His  ardour  had  no 
disguise.  They  measured  him  by  the  favourite  fiction's 
heroes  of  their  youth,  and  found  him  to  gaze,  talk,  comport 
himself,  according  to  the  prescription;  correct  grammar, 
finished  sentences,  all  that  is  expected  of  a  gentleman 
enamoured ;  and  ever  with  the  watchful  intentness  for  his 
lady's  faintest  first  dawn  of  an  inclining  to  a  wish.  Mr. 
Dudley  Sowerby's  eye  upon  Nesta  was  really  an  apprentice. 
There  is  in  Love's  young  season  a  magnanimity  in  the 
male  kind.  Their  superior  strength  and  knowledge  are 
made  subservient  to  the  distaff  of  the  weaker  and  shallower: 
they  crown  her  queen ;  her  look  is  their  mandate.  So  was 
it  when  Sir  Charles  and  Sir  Eupert  and  the  estimable 
Villiers  Davenant  touched  maidenly  hearts  to  throb :  so  is 
it  now,  with  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby. 

Very  haltingly,  the  ladies  were  guilty  of  a  suggestion  to 
Victor.  "  Oh !  Fredi  ?  "  said  he ;  "admires  her,  no  doubt ; 
and  so  do  I,  so  we  all  do ;  she 's  one  of  the  nice  girls  ;  but 
as  to  Cupid's  darts,  she  belongs  to  the  cucumber  family,  and 
he  shoots  without  fireing.  We  shall  do  the  mischief  if  we 
put  an  interdict.  Don't  you  remember  the  green  days  when 
obstacles  were  the  friction  to  light  that  match  ?  '^  Their 
pretty  nod  of  assent  displayed  the  virgin  pride  of  the 
remembrance:  they  dreamed  of  having  once  been  exceed- 


250  ONE   OF   OTTR   COKQtTERORS 

ingly  wilful ;  it  refreshed  their  nipped  natures ;  atid  dwell* 
ing  on  it,  they  forgot  to  press  their  suggestion.  Incidentally, 
he  named  the  sum  his  Fredi  would  convey  to  her  husband; 
with,  as  was  calculable,  the  further  amount  his  only  child 
would  inherit.  A  curious  effect  was  produced  on  them. 
Though  they  were  not  imaginatively  mercenary,  as  the 
creatures  tainted  with  wealth  commonly  are,  they  talked 
of  the  sum  over  and  over  in  the  solitude  of  their  chamber. 
"Dukes  have  married  for  less."  Such  an  heiress,  they  said, 
might  buy  up  a  Principality.  Victor  had  supplied  them 
with  something  of  an  apology  to  the  gentleman  proposing 
to  JSTesta  in  their  house. 

The  chronicle  of  it  is,  that  Dudley  Sowerby  did  this  on 
the  fifteenth  day  of  September ;  and  that  it  was  not  known  to 
the  damsel's  parents  before  the  twenty-third ;  as  they  were 
away  on  an  excursion  in  South  Tyrol :  —  away,  flown,  with 
just  a  word  of  the  hurried  departure  to  their  envious,  exiled 
girl ;  though  they  did  not  tell  her  of  new  constructions  at 
the  London  house  partly  causing  them  to  fly.  Subject  to 
their  consent,  she  wrote,  she  had  given  hers.  The  letter 
was  telegramic  on  the  essential  point.  She  wrote  of  Mr. 
Barmby's  having  visited  Mr.  Posterley  at  the  Wells,  and  she 
put  it  just  as  flatly.  Her  principal  concern,  to  judge  by  her 
writing,  was,  to  know  what  Mr.  Durance  had  done,  during 
her  absence,  with  the  group  of  emissary-advocates  of  the  vari- 
ous tongues  of  Europe  on  board  the  steam-Liner  conducting 
them  the  first  stage  of  their  journey  to  the  Court  of  Japan. 

Mr.  Simeon  Fenellan  had  written  his  opinion,  that  all 
these  delegates  of  the  different  European  nationalities 
were  nothing  other  than  dupes  of  a  New  York  Syndicate 
of  American  Humourists,  not  without  an  eye  on  the  main- 
chance  ;  and  he  was  sure  they  would  be  set  to  debate 
publicly,  before  an  audience  of  high-priced  tickets,  in  the 
principal  North  American  Cities,  previous  to  the  embarca- 
tion  for  Japan  at  San  Erancisco.  Mr.  Fenellan  eulogized 
the  immense  astuteness  of  Dr.  Gannius  in  taking  his 
daughter  Delphica  with  him.  Dr.  Gannius  had  singled 
forth  poor  Dr.  Bouthoin  for  the  object  of  his  attacks ;  but 
Nesta  was  chiefly  anxious  to  hear  of  Delphica's  proceedings ; 
she  was  immensely  interested  in  Delphica,  and  envied  her  ; 
and  the  girl's  funny  speculations  over  the  play  of  Delphica's 


liTESTA'S  ENGAGEiMENT  251 

divers  arts  upon  the  Greek,  and  upon  the  Eussian,  and  upon 
the  English  curate  Mr.  Semhians,  and  upon  M.  Falarique  — 
set  Gallically  pluming  and  crowing  out  of  an  Alsace-Lorraine 
growl  —  were  clever.  Only,  in  such  a  letter,  they  were 
amazing. 

ISTataly  received  it  at  Campiglio,  when  about  to  start  for 
an  excursion  down  the  Sarca  Valley  to  Arco,  Her  letter  of 
reply  was  delayed.  One  to  Victor  from  Dudley  Sowerby, 
awaited  them,  on  their  return.  "  Confirms  Fredi,"  he  said, 
showing  it,  and  praising  it  as  commendable,  properly  fervid. 
She  made  pretence  to  read,  she  saw  the  words. 

Her  short  beat  of  wings  was  over.  She  had  joined  her- 
self with  Victor's  leap  for  a  change,  thirsting  for  the 
scenery  of  the  white  peaks  in  heaven,  to  enjoy  through  his 
enjoyment,  if  her  own  capacity  was  dead:  and  she  had 
found  it  revive,  up  to  some  recovery  of  her  old  songful 
readiness  for  invocations  of  pleasure.  Escape  and  beauty 
beckoned  ahead;  behind  were  the  chains.  These  two 
letters  of  the  one  fact  plucked  her  back.  The  chained 
body  bore  the  fluttering  spirit :  or  it  was  the  spirit  in  bonds, 
that  dragged  the  body.  Both  were  abashed  before  the 
image  of  her  girl.  Out  of  the  riddle  of  her  strange  Nesta, 
one  thing  was  clear :  she  did  not  love  the  man :  and  Nataly 
tasted  gladness  in  that,  from  the  cup  of  poisonous  regrets 
at  the  thought.  Her  girl's  heart  would  not  be  broken. 
But  if  he  so  strongly  loved  her,  as  to  hold  to  this  engage- 
ment ?  ...  It  might  then  be  worse.  She  dropped  a  plumb- 
line  into  the  young  man,  sounding  him  by  what  she  knew  of 
him  and  judged.  She  had  to  revert  to  Nesta's  charm,  for 
the  assurance  of  his  anchored  attachment. 

Her  holiday  took  the  burden  of  her  trouble,  and  amid  the 
beauty  of  a  disenchanted  scene,  she  resumed  the  London 
incubus. 

"  You  told  him  of  her  being  at  the  "Wells  ?  in  the 
neighbourhood,  Victor  ?  " 

"  Did  n't  you  know,  my  dear,  the  family-seat  is  Cronidge, 
two  miles  out  from  the  Wells  ?  —  and  particularly  pretty 
country." 

"  I  had  forgotten,  if  I  ever  heard.  You  will  not  let  him 
be  in  ignorance  ?  " 

"  My  dear  love,  you  are  pale  about  it.     This  is  a  matter 


252  ONE  OF  OUB  COKQXTERORS 

between  men.  I  write,  thanking  for  the  honour  and  so 
forth ;  and  I  appoint  an  interview ;  and  I  show  him  my 
tablets.  He  must  be  told,  necessarily.  Incidents  of  this 
kind  come  in  their  turn.  If  Dudley  does  not  account  him- 
self the  luckiest  young  fellow  in  the  kingdom,  he  's  not 
worthy  of  his  good  fortune.  I  wish  they  were  both  here 
now,  honeymooning  among  these  peaks,  seeing  the  crescent 
over  one,  as  we  did  last  night !  " 

"  Have  you  an  idea,  in  reading  Nesta's  letter  ?  " 

"  Seems  indifferent  ?  —  mere  trick  to  hide  the  blushes. 
And  I,  too,  I  'm  interested  in  Delphica.  Delphica  and 
Falarique  will  be  fine  stage  business.  Of  course.  Dr. 
Bouthoin  and  his  curate !  —  we  know  what  Old  England 
has  to  expect  from  Colney." 

"  At  any  rate,  Mr.  Durance  hurts  no  one.  You  will,  in 
your  letter,  appoint  the  day  of  the  interview  ?  " 

"Hurts  himself!  Yes,  dearest;  appoint  for  —  ten  days 
homeward  —  eleventh  day  from  to-day.  And  you  to  Fredi : 
a  bit  of  description  —  as  you  can,  my  Nataly  !  Happy  to 
be  a  dolomite,  to  be  painted  by  Nataly's  pen.'^ 

The  sign  is  evil,  when  we  have  a  vexatious  ringing  in 
the  ear  of  some  small  piece  of  familiar  domestic  chatter, 
and  subject  it  to  scrutiny,  hang  on  it,  worry  and  magnify 
it.  What  will  not  creatures  under  sway  of  the  sensational 
life,  catch  at  to  emphasize  and  strengthen  distaste,  until 
distaste  shall  have  a  semblance  of  reason,  in  the  period  of 
the  mind's  awakening  to  revolt !  Nataly  shrank  from  the 
name  of  dolomite,  detested  the  name,  though  the  scenes 
regained  their  beauty  or  something  of  it  beneath  her  show- 
ery vision.  Every  time  Victor  spoke  of  dolomites  on  the 
journey  homeward,  she  had  at  heart  an  accusation  of  her 
cowardice,  her  duplicity,  frailty,  treachery  to  the  highest  of 
her  worship  and  sole  support  of  her  endurance  in  the  world  : 
not  much  blaming  him :  but  the  degrading  view  of  herself 
sank  them  both.  On  a  shifty  soil,  down  goes  the  idol.  For 
him  she  could  plead  still,  for  herself  she  could  not. 

The  smell  of  the  Channel  brine  inspirited  her  sufficiently 
to  cast  off  the  fit  and  make  it  seem,  in  the  main,  a  bodily 
depression  ;  owing  to  causes,  of  which  she  was  beginning  to 
have  an  apprehensive  knowledge :  and  they  were  not  so 
fearful  to  her  as  the  gloom  they  displaced. 


NATALY  LN   ACTION  263 

CHAPTER  XXV 

NATALY   IN   ACTION 

A  TUCKET  of  herald  newspapers  told  the  world  of  Victor's 
returning  to  his  London.  Pretty  Mrs.  Blathenoy  was 
Nataly's  first  afternoon  visitor,  and  was  graciously  received  ; 
no  sign  of  inquiry  for  the  cause  of  the  lady's  alacrity  to 
greet  her  being  shown.  Colney  Durance  came  in,  bringing 
the  rumour  of  an  Australian  cantatrice  to  kindle  Europe ; 
Mr.  Peridon,  a  seeker  of  tidings  from  the  city  of  Bourges  ; 
Miss  Priscilla  Graves,  reporting  of  Skepsey,  in  a  holiday 
Sunday  tone,  that  his  alcoholic  partner  might  at  any  moment 
release  him ;  Mr.  Septimus  Barmby,  with  a  hanged  heavy 
look,  suggestive  of  a  wharfside  crane  swinging  the  ponder- 
ous thing  he  had  to  say.     "  T  have  seen  Miss  Eadnor." 

"  She  was  well  ?  ^'  the  mother  asked,  and  the  grand  basso 
pitched  forth  an  affirmative. 

*'  Dear  sweet  girl  she  is !  "  Mrs.  Blathenoy  exclaimed  to 
Colney. 

He  bowed.  "  Very  sweet.  And  can  let  fly  on  you,  like 
a  haggis,  for  a  scratch." 

She  laughed,  glad  of  an  escape  from  the  conversational 
formalities  imposed  on  her  by  this  Mrs.  Victor  Radnor^s 
mighty  manner.  "But  what  girl  worth  anything!  .  ,  . 
We  all  can  do  that,  I  hope,  for  a  scratch ! " 

Mr.  Barmby's  Profession  dissented. 

Mr.  Catkin  appeared ;  ten  minutes  after  his  Peridon.  He 
had  met  Victor  near  the  Exchange,  and  had  left  him  hum- 
ming the  71071  fu  sogno  of  Eknani. 

"  Ah,  when  Victor  takes  to  Verdi,  it 's  a  flat  City,  and 
wants  a  burst  of  drum  and  brass,"  Colney  said;  and  he 
hummed  a  few  bars  of  the  march  in  Attila,  and  shrugged. 
He  and  Victor  had  once  admired  that  blatancy. 

Mr.  Pempton  appeared,  according  to  anticipation.  He 
sat  himself  beside  Priscilla.  Entered  Mrs.  John  Cormyn, 
voluminous  ;  Mrs.  Peter  Yatt,  effervescent ;  Nataly's  own 
people  were  about  her  and  she  felt  at  home. 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  pushed  a  small  thorn  into  it,  by  speaking 


254  ONE  OF  OUE,  CONQUEROKS 

of  Captain  Fenellan,  and  aside,  as  if  sharing  him  with.  her. 
Nataly  heard  that  Dartrey  had  been  the  guest  of  these 
Blathenoys.     Even  Dartrey  was  but  a  man  ! 

Eather  lower  under  her  voice,  the  vain  little  creature 
asked:  "You  knew  her?" 

"  Her  ?  " 

The  cool  counter-interrogation  was  disregarded.  ^^So 
sad  !  In  the  desert !  a  cup  of  pure  water  worth  more  than 
barroW-loads  of  gold!     Poor  woman T' 

"Who?" 

"His  wife." 

"Wife!" 

"  They  were  married  ?  " 

Nataly  could  have  cried :  Snake  !  Her  play  at  brevity 
had  certainly  been  foiled.  She  nodded  gravely.  A  load  of 
dusky  wonders  and  speculations  pressed  at  her  bosom.  She 
disdained  to  question  the  mouth  which  had  bitten  her. 

Mrs.  Blathenoy,  resolving,  that  despite  the  jealousy  she 
excited,  she  would  have  her  friend  in  Captain  Fenellan, 
whom  she  liked  —  liked,  she  was  sure,  quite  as  innocently 
as  any  other  woman  of  his  acquaintance  did,  departed :  and 
she  hugged  her  innocence  defiantly,  with  the  mournful  pride 
which  will  sometimes  act  as  a  solvent. 

A  remark  or  two  passed  among  the  company  upon  her 
pretty  face. 

Nataly  murmured  to'^  Colney :  "  Is  there  anything  of 
Dartrey's  wife?" 

"Dead,"  he  answered. 

"When?" 

"Months  back.  I  had  it  from  Simeon.  You  didn't 
hear  ?  " 

She  shook  her  head.  Her  ears  buzzed.  If  he  had  it  from 
Simeon  Fenellan,  Victor  must  have  known  it. 

Her  duties  of  hostess  were  conducted  with  the  ofiB.cial 
smile. 

As  soon  as  she  stood  alone,  she  dropped  on  a  chair,  like 
one  who  has  taken  a  shot  in  the  heart,  and  that  hideous 
tumult  of  wild  cries  at  her  ears  blankly  ceased.  Dartrey, 
Victor,  Nesta,  were  shifting  figures  of  the  might-have-been  : 
for  whom  a  wretched  erring  woman,  washed  clean  of  her 
guilt  by  death,  in  a  far  land,  had  ^one  to  her  end :  vainly 


KATAIiY  IN   ACTION  255 

gone :  and  now  another  was  here,  a  figure  of  wood,  in  man's 
shape,  conjured  up  by  one  of  the  three,  to  divide  the  two 
others ;  likely  to  be  fatal  to  her  or  to  them :  to  her,  she 
hoped,  if  the  choice  was  to  be ;  and  beneath  the  leaden 
hope,  her  heart  set  to  a  rapid  beating,  a  fainter,  a  chill  at 
the  core. 

She  snatched  for  breath.  She  shut  her  eyes,  and  with 
open  lips,  lay  waiting  ;  prepared  to  thank  the  kindness  about 
to  hurry  her  hence,  out  of  the  seas  of  pain,  without  pain. 

Then  came  sighs.  The  sad  old  servant  in  her  bosom  was 
resuming  his  labours. 

But  she  had  been  near  it  —  very  near  it  ?  A  gush  of 
pity  for  Victor,  overwhelmed  her  hardness  of  mind. 

Unreflectingly,  she  tried  her  feet  to  support  her,  and 
tottered  to  the  door,  touched  along  to  the  stairs,  and  de- 
scended them,  thinking  strangely  upon  such  a  sudden 
weakness  of  body,  when  she  would  no  longer  have  thought 
herself  the  weak  woman.  Her  aim  was  to  reach  the 
library.  She  sat  on  the  stairs  midway,  pondering  over 
the  length  of  her  journey  :  and  now  her  head  was  clearer  ; 
for  she  was  travelling  to  get  Railway-guides,  and  might 
have  had  them  from  the  hands  of  a  footman,  and  imagined 
that  she  had  considered  it  prudent  to  hide  her  investigation 
of  those  books  :  proofs  of  an  understanding  fallen  backward 
to  the  state  of  infant  and  having  to  begin  our  drear  ascent 
again. 

A  slam  of  the  kitchen  stair-door  restored  her.  She  be- 
trayed no  infirmity  of  footing  as  she  walked  past  Arlington 
in  the  hall;  and  she  was  alive  to  the  voice  of  Skepsey 
presently  on  the  door-steps.     Arlington  brought  her  a  note. 

Victor  had  written :  "  My  love,  I  dine  with  Blathenoy  in 
the  City,  at  the  Walworth.  Business.  Skepsey  for  clothes. 
Eight  of  us.     Formal.     A  thousand  embraces.     Late." 

Skepsey  was  ushered  in.  His  wife  had  expired  at  noon, 
he  said ;  and  he  postured  decorously  the  grief  he  could  not 
feel,  knowing  that  a  lady  would  expect  it  of  him.  His  wife 
had  fallen  down  stone  steps ;  she  died  in  hospital.  He 
wished  to  say,  she  was  no  loss  to  the  country ;  but  he  was 
advised  within  of  the  prudence  of  abstaining  from  comment 
and  trusting  to  his  posture,  and  he  squeezed  a  drop  of  con- 
ventional sensibility  out  of  it,  and  felt  improved. 


256  OKE  OF  OUE   CONQUEKOES 

Nataly  sent  a  line  to  Victor :  "  Dearest,  I  go  to  bed  early, 
am  tired.     Dine  well.     Come  to  me  in  the  morning." 

She  reproached  herself  for  coldness  to  poor  Skepsey,  when 
he  had  gone.  The  prospect  of  her  being  alone  until  the 
morning  had  been  so  absorbing  a  relief. 

She  found  a  relief  also  in  work  at  the  book  of  the 
trains.  A  walk  to  the  telegraph-station  strengthened  her. 
Especially  after  despatching  a  telegram  to  Mr.  Dudley 
Sowerby  at  Cronidge,  and  one  to  Nesta  at  Moorsedge,  did 
she  become  stoutly  nerved.  The  former  was  requested  to 
meet  her  at  Penshurst  station  at  noon.  Nesta  was  to  be  at 
the  station  for  the  Wells  at  three  o'clock. 

From  the  time  of  the  flying  of  these  telegrams,  up  to  the 
tap  of  Victor's  knuckle  on  her  bedroom  door  next  morning, 
she  was  not  more  reflectively  conscious  than  a  packet  travel- 
ling to  its  destination  by  pneumatic  tube.  ISTor  was  she 
acutely  impressionable  to  the  features  and  the  voice  she 
loved. 

"You  know  of  Skepsey?  "  she  said. 

"  Ah,  poor  Skepsey ! ''     Victor  frowned  and  heaved. 

"  One  of  us  ought  to  stand  beside  him  at  the  funeral." 

"  Colney  or  Fenellan  ?  " 

"  I  will  ask  Mr.  Durance." 

"Do,  my  darling." 

"  Victor,  you  did  not  tell  me  of  Dartrey's  wife." 

« There  again!  They  all  get  released!  Yes,  Dartrey! 
Dartrey  has  his  luck  too." 

She  closed  her  eyes,  with  the  desire  to  be  asleep. 

"  You  should  have  told  me,  dear." 

"Well,  my  love!  Well  —  poor  Dartrey!  I  fancy  I 
had  n't  a  confirmation  of  the  news.  I  remember  a  horrible 
fit  of  envy  on  hearing  the  hint :  not  much  more  than  a  hint : 
serious  illness,  was  it?  —  or  expected  event.  Hardly  worth 
while  to  trouble  my  dear  soul,  till  certain.  Anything  about 
wives  forces  me  to  think  of  myself  —  my  better  self  I " 

"  I  had  to  hear  of  it  first  from  Mrs.  Blathenoy." 

"You've  heard  of  duels  in  dark  rooms: — that  was  the 
case  between  Blathenoy  and  me  last  night  for  an  hour." 

She  feigned  somnolent  fatigue  over  her  feverish  weariness 
of  heart.     He  kissed  her  on  the  forehead. 

Her  spell-bound  intention  to  speak  of  Dudley  Sowerby  to 


NATALY  IN  ACTIOK  257 

Mm,  was  broken  by  the  sounding  of  the  hall-door,  thirty- 
minutes  later.     She  had  lain  in  a  trance. 

Life  surged  to  her  with  the  thought,  that  she  could  decide 
and  take  her  step.  Many  were  the  years  back  since  she  had 
taken  a  step ;  less  independently  then  than  now ;  unregretted, 
if  fatal.  Her  brain  was  heated  for  the  larger  view  of 
things  and  the  swifter  summing  of  them.  It  could  put 
the  man  at  a  remove  from  her  and  say,  that  she  had  lived 
with  him  and  suffered  intensely.  It  gathered  him  to  her 
breast  rejoicing  in  their  union :  the  sharper  the  scourge,  the 
keener  the  exultation.  But  she  had  one  reproach  to  deafen 
and  beat  down.  This  did  not  come  on  her  from  the  world : 
she  and  the  world  were  too  much  foot  to  foot  on  the 
antagonist's  line,  for  her  to  listen  humbly.  It  came  of  her 
quick  summary  survey  of  him,  which  was  unnoticed  by  the 
woman's  present  fiery  mind  as  being  new  or  strange  in  any 
way :  simply  it  was  a  fact  she  now  read ;  and  it  directed  her 
to  reproach  herself  for  an  abasement  beneath  his  leadership, 
a  blind  subserviency  and  surrender  of  her  faculties  to  his 
greater  powers,  such  as  no  soul  of  a  breathing  body  should 
yield  to  man :  not  to  the  highest,  not  to  the  Titan,  not  to 
the  most  Godlike  of  men.  Under  cloak,  they  demand  it. 
They  demand  their  bane. 

And  Victor !  .  .  .  She  had  seen  into  him. 

The  reproach  on  her  was,  that  she,  in  her  worship,  had 
been  slave,  not  helper.  Scarcely  was  she  irreproachable  in 
the  character  of  slave.  If  it  had  been  but  utter  slave !  she 
phrased  the  words,  for  a  further  reproach.  She  remembered 
having  at  times  murmured,  dissented.  And  it  would  have 
been  a  desperate  proud  thought  to  comfort  a  slave,  that 
never  once  had  she  known  even  a  secret  opposition  to  the 
will  of  her  lord. 

But  she  had :  she  recalled  instances.  Up  they  rose ;  up 
rose  everything  her  mind  ranged  over,  subsiding  imme- 
diately when  the  service  was  done.  She  had  not  conceived 
her  beloved  to  be  infallible,  surest  of  guides  in  all  earthly 
matters.     Her  intellect  had  sometimes  protested. 

What,  then,  had  moved  her  to  swamp  it  ? 

Her  heart  answered.  And  that  heart  also  was  ar- 
raigned: and  the  heart's  fleshly  habitation  acting  on  it 
besides  :  so  flagellant  of  herself  was  she :  covertly,  however, 

17 


258  ONE  OF   OXTK   CONQUERORS 

and  as  the  chaste  among  women  can  consent  to  let  our 
animal  face  them.  Not  grossly,  still  perceptibly  to  her 
penetrative  hard  eye  on  herself,  she  saw  the  senses  of  the 
woman  under  a  charm.  She  saw,  and  swam  whirling  with 
a  pang  of  revolt  from  her  personal  being  and  this  mortal 
kind. 

Her  rational  intelligence  righted  her  speedily.  She 
could  say  in  truth,  by  proof,  she  loved  the  man :  nature's 
love,  heart's  love,  soul's  love.  She  had  given  him  her 
life. 

It  was  a  happy  cross-current  recollection,  that  the  very 
beginning  and  spring  of  this  wild  cast  of  her  ]ife,  issued 
from  something  he  said  and  did  (merest  of  airy  gestures)  to 
signify  the  blessing  of  life  —  how  good  and  fair  it  is.  A 
drooping  mood  in  her  had  been  struck  ;  he  had  a  look  like 
the  winged  lyric  up  in  blue  heavens  :  he  raised  the  head  of 
the  young  flower  from  its  contemplation  of  grave-mould. 
That  was  when  he  had  much  to  bear  :  Mrs.  Bur  man  pres- 
ent :  and  when  the  stranger  in  their  household  had  begun 
to  pity  him  and  have  a  dread  of  her  feelings.  The  lucent 
splendour  of  his  eyes  was  memorable,  a  light  above  the 
rolling  oceans  of  Time. 

She  had  given  him  her  life,  little  aid.  She  might  ha^e 
closely  counselled,  wound  in  and  out  with  his  ideas.  Sen- 
sible of  capacity,  she  confessed  to  the  having  been  morally 
subdued,  physically  as  well ;  swept  onward ;  and  she  was 
arrested  now  by  an  accident,  like  a  waif  of  the  river-floods 
by  the  dip  of  a  branch.  Time  that  it  should  be !  But  was 
not  Mr.  Durance,  inveighing  against  the  favoured  system 
for  the  education  of  women,  right  when  he  declared  them 
to  be  unfitted  to  speak  an  opinion  on  any  matter  external 
to  the  household  or  in  a  crisis  of  the  household  ?  She  had 
not  agreed  with  him:  he  presented  stinging  sentences, 
which  irritated  more  than  they  enlightened.  Now  it 
seemed  to  her,  that  the  model  women  or  men  make  pleas- 
ant slaves,  not  true  mates  :  they  lack  the  worldly  training 
to  know  themselves  or  take  a  grasp  of  circumstances. 
There  is  an  exotic  fostering  of  the  senses  for  women, 
not  the  strengthening  breath  of  vital  common  air.  If 
good  fortune  is  with  them,  all  may  go  well :  the  stake  of 
their  fates   is   upon  the   perpetual  smooth  flow  of  good 


NATALY  IN  ACTION  259 

fortune.  She  had  never  joined  to  the  cry  of  the  women. 
Few  among  them  were  having  it  in  the  breast  as  loudly. 

Hard  on  herself,  too,  she  perceived  how  the  social  rebel 
had  reduced  her  mind  to  propitiate  a  simulacrum,  reflected 
from  out,  of  an  enthroned  Society  within  it,  by  an  advocacy 
of  the  existing  laws  and  rules  and  habits.  Eminently  ser- 
vile is  the  tolerated  lawbreaker:  none  so  conservative. 
Not  until  we  are  driven  back  upon  an  un violated  Nature, 
do  we  call  to  the  intellect  to  think  radically  :  and  then  we 
begin  to  think  of  our  fellows. 

Or  when  we  have  set  ourselves  in  motion  direct  for  the 
doing  of  the  right  thing :  have  quitted  the  carriage  at  the 
station,  and  secured  the  ticket,  and  entered  the  train,  count- 
ing the  passage  of  time  for  a  simple  rapid  hour  before  we 
have  eased  heart  in  doing  justice  to  ourself  and  to  another^ 
then  likewise  the  mind  is  lighted  for  radiation.  That  do- 
ing of  the  right  thing,  after  a  term  of  paralysis,  cowardice 
—  any  evil  name — is  one  of  the  mighty  reliefs,  equal  to 
happiness,  of  longer  duration. 

Nataly  had  it.  But  her  mind  was  actually  radiating,  and 
the  comfort  to  her  heart  evoked  the  image  of  Dartrey 
Fenellan.  She  saw  a  possible  reason  for  her  bluntness 
to  the  coming  scene  with  Dudley. 

At  once  she  said,  No !  and  closed  the  curtain  ;  know- 
ing what  was  behind,  counting  it  nought.  She  repeated 
almost  honestly  her  positive  negative.  How  we  are  mixed 
of  the  many  elements !  she  thought,  as  an  observer ;  and 
self-justifyingly  thought  on,  and  with  truth,  that  duty 
urged  her  upon  this  journey  ;  and  proudly  thought,  that  she 
had  not  a  shock  of  the  painful  great  organ  in  her  breast  at 
the  prospect  at  the  end,  or  any  apprehension  of  its  failure  to 
carry  her  through. 

Yet  the  need  of  peace  or  some  solace  needed  to  prepare 
her  for  the  interview  turned  her  imagination  burningly  on 
Dartrey.  She  would  not  allow  herself  to  meditate  over 
hopes  and  schemes :  — Nesta  free  :  Dartrey  free.  She  vowed 
to  her  soul  sacredly  —  and  she  was  one  of  those  in  whom 
the  Divinity  lives,  that  they  may  do  so  —  not  to  speak  a 
word  for  the  influencing  of  Dudley  save  the  one  fact.  Conse- 
quently, for  a  personal  indulgence,  she  mused  ;  she  caressed 
maternally  the  object  of  her  musing  j  ^f  necessity,  she  ex- 


260  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUEEORS 

eluded  Nesta ;  but  in  tenderness  she  gave  Dartrey  a  fair  one 
to  love  him. 

The  scene  was  waved  away.  That  one  so  loving  him, 
partly  worthy  of  him,  ready  to  traverse  the  world  now 
beside  him  —  who  could  it  be  other  than  she  who  knew  and 
prized  his  worth  ?  Foolish  !  It  is  one  of  the  hatefuller 
scourges  upon  women  whenever,  a  little  shaken  themselves, 
they  muse  upon  some  man's  image,  that  they  cannot  put  in 
motion  the  least  bit  of  drama  without  letting  feminine  self 
play  a  part;  generally  to  develop  into  a  principal  part. 
The  apology  makes  it  a  melancholy  part. 

Dartrey 's  temper  of  the  caged  lion  dominated  by  his 
tamer,  served  as  key-note  for  any  amount  of  saddest  colour- 
ing. He  controlled  the  brute  :  but  he  held  the  contempt  of 
danger,  the  love  of  strife,  the  passion  for  adventure  ;  he  had 
crossed  the  desert  of  human  anguish.  He  of  all  men  required 
a  devoted  mate,  merited  her.  Of  all  men  living,  he  was  the 
hardest  to  match  with  a  woman  —  with  a  woman  deserving 
him. 

The  train  had  quitted  London.  Now  for  the  country, 
now  for  free  breathing !  She  who  two  days  back  had  come 
from  Alps,  delighted  in  the  look  on  flat  green  fields.  It  was 
under  the  hallucination  of  her  saying  in  flight  adieu  to  them, 
and  to  England ;  and,  that  somewhere  hidden,  to  be  found 
in  Asia,  Africa,  America,  was  the  man  whose  ideal  of  life 
was  higher  than  enjoyment.  His  caged  brute  of  a  temper 
offered  opportunities  for  delicious  petting ;  the  sweetest  a 
woman  can  bestow :  it  lifts  her  out  of  timidity  into  an 
adoration  still  palpitatingly  fearful.  Ah,  but  familiarity, 
knowledge,  confirmed  assurance  of  his  character,  lift  her  to 
another  stage,  above  the  pleasures.  May  she  not  prove  to 
him  how  really  matched  with  him  she  is,  to  disdain  the 
pleasures,  cheerfully  accept  the  burdens,  meet  death,  if  need 
be  ;  readily  face  it  as  the  quietly  grey  to-morrow :  at  least, 
show  herself  to  her  hero  for  a  woman  —  the  incredible  being 
to  most  men  —  who  treads  the  terrors  as  well  as  the  pleasures 
of  humanity  beneath  her  feet,  and  may  therefore  have  some 
pride  in  her  stature.  Ay,  but  only  to  feel  the  pride  of 
standing  not  so  shamefully  below  his  level  beside  him. 

Woods  were  flying  past  the  carriage-windows.  Her  soli' 
tary  companion  was  (j^  the  class  of  the  admiring  gentlemen. 


NATALY  m  ACTION  261 

Presently  he  spoke.  She  answered.  He  spoke  again.  Her 
mouth  smiled,  and  her  accompanying  look  of  abstract  benev- 
olence arrested  the  tentative  allurement  to  conversation. 

New  ideas  were  set  revolving  in  her.  Dartrey  and  Victor 
grew  to  a  likeness  ;  they  became  hazily  one  man,  and  the 
mingled  phantom  complimented  her  on  her  preserving  a 
good  share  of  the  beauty  of  her  youth.  The  face  perhaps  : 
the  figure  rather  too  well  suits  the  years  !  she  replied.  To 
reassure  her,  this  Dartrey- Victor  drew  her  close  and  kissed 
her ;  and  she  was  confused  and  passed  into  the  breast  of 
Mrs.  Burman  expecting  an  operation  at  the  hands  of  the 
surgeons.  The  train  had  stopped.  "Penshurst?"  she 
said. 

"  Penshurst  is  the  next  station,'^  said  the  gentleman. 
Here  was  a  theme  for  him  !  The  stately  mansion,  the  noble 
grounds,  and  Sidney !  He  discoursed  of  them.  The  hand- 
some lady  appeared  interested.  She  was  interested  also  by 
his  description  of  a  neighbouring  village,  likely  one  hundred 
years  hence  to  be  a  place  of  pilgrimage  for  Americans  and 
far  Australians.  Age,  he  said,  improves  true  beauty ;  and 
his  eyelids  indicated  a  levelling  to  perform  the  soft  intent- 
ness.  Mechanically,  a  ball  rose  in  her  throat;  the  remark 
was  illuminated  by  a  saying  of  Colney's,  with  regard  to  his 
countrymen  at  the  play  of  courtship.  No  laughter  came. 
The  gentleman  talked  on. 

All  fancies  and  internal  communications  left  her.  Slow- 
ness of  motion  brought  her  to  the  plain  piece  of  work  she 
had  to  do,  on  a  colourless  earth,  that  seemed  foggy ;  but 
one  could  see  one's  way.  Eesolution  is  a  form  of  light,  our 
native  light  in  this  dubious  world. 

Dudley  Sowerby  opened  her  carriage-door.   They  greeted. 

**  You  have  seen  Nesta  ?  "  she  said. 

"Not  for  two  days.  You  have  not  heard?  The  Miss 
Duvidneys  have  gone  to  Brighton." 

"  They  are  rather  in  advance  of  the  Season.'' 

She  thanked  him  for  meeting  her.  He  was  grateful  for 
the  summons. 

Informing  the  mother  of  his  betrothed,  that  he  had  ridden 
over  from  Cronidge,  he  speculated  on  the  place  to  select  for 
her  luncheon,  and  he  spoke  of  his  horse  being  led  up  and 
down  outside  the  station.    Nataly  inq^uired  for  the  hour  of 


262  ONE  OF   OUR   COKQTJERORS 

the  next  train  to  London.  He  called  to  one  of  the  porters, 
obtained  and  imparted  the  time ;  evidently  now,  as  shown 
by  an  unevenness  of  his  lifted  brows,  expecting  news  of 
some  little  weight. 

"  Your  husband  is  quite  well  ?  "  he  said,  in  affection  for 
the  name  of  husband. 

"  Mr.  Eadnor  is  well ;  I  have  to  speak  to  you ;  I  have 
more  than  time." 

"  You  will  lunch  at  the  inn  ?  " 

"  I  shall  not  eat.    We  will  walk.^* 

They  crossed  the  road  and  passed  under  trees. 

'  *  My  mother  was  to  have  called  on  the  Miss  Duvidneys. 
They  left  hurriedly ;  I  think  it  was  unanticipated  by  Nesta. 
I  venture  .  .  .  you  pardon  the  liberty  .  .  .  she  allows  me 
to  entertain  hopes.  Mr.  Eadnor,  I  am  hardly  too  bold  in 
thinking  ...  I  trust,  in  appealing  to  you  ...  at  least  I 
can  promise. '' 

"Mr.  Sowerby,  you  have  done  my  daughter  the  honour 
to  ask  her  hand  in  marriage." 

He  said:  "I  have/'  and  had  much  to  say  besides,  but 
deferred:  a  blow  was  visible.  The  father  had  been  more 
encourageing  to  him  than  the  mother. 

"  You  have  not  known  of  any  circumstance  that  might 
cause  hesitation  in  asking  ?  " 

<^Miss  Eadnor?" 

"  My  daughter  :  —  you  have  to  think  of  your  family." 

"  Indeed,  Mrs.  Eadnor,  I  was  coming  to  London  to-mor- 
row, with  the  consent  of  my  family." 

"  You  address  me  as  Mrs.  Eadnor.  I  have  not  the  legal 
right  to  the  name." 

"Not  legal ! "  said  he,  with  a  catch  at  the  word. 

He  spun  round  in  her  sight,  tliough  his  demeanour  was 
manfully  rigid. 

"  Have  I  understood,  madam  ?  .  .  .  " 

"  You  would  not  request  me  to  repeat  it.  Is  that  your 
horse  the  man  is  leading  ?  " 

"  My  horse  :  it  must  be  my  horse." 

"  Mount  and  ride  back.  Leave  me :  I  shall  not  eat.  Ee- 
flect,  by  yourself.  You  are  in  the  position  of  one  who  is 
not  allowed  to  decide  by  his  feelings.  Mr.  Eadnor  you 
know  where  to  find." 


A  CONVENTIONAL  GENTLEMAN  263 

« But  surely,  some  food  ?  I  cannot  have  misappre- 
hended?'' .  •,      1    „ 

"  I  cannot  eat.    I  think  you  have  understood  me  clearly. 

^^  You  wish  me  to  go  ?  " 

"I  beg." 

*^It  pains  me,  dear  madam." 

"  It  relieves  me,  if  you  will.     Here  is  your  horse." 

She  gave  her  hand.  He  touched  it  and  bent.  He  looked 
at  her.  A  surge  of  impossible  questions  rolled  to  his 
mouth  and  rolled  back,  with  the  thought  of  an  incredible 
thing,  that  her  manner,  more  than  her  words,  held  him 
from  doubting. 

^*  I  obey  you,"  he  said. 

"  You  are  kind." 

He  mounted  horse,  raised  hat,  paced  on,  and  again  bow- 
ing, to  one  of  the  wayside  trees,  cantered.  The  man  was 
gone ;  but  not  from  Nataly's  vision  that  face  of  wet  chalk 
under  one  of  the  shades  of  fire. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


IN   WHICH   WE    SEE   A   CONVENTIONAL    GENTLEMAN    ENDEAV- 
OURING   TO    EXAMINE   A    SPECTRE   OF    HIMSELF 

Dudley  rode  back  to  Cronidge  with  his  thunderstroke.  It 
filled  him,  as  in  those  halls  of  political  clamour,  where  ex- 
planatory speech  is  not  accepted,  because  of  a  drowning  tide 
of  hot  blood  on  both  sides.  He  sought  to  win  attention  by 
submitting  a  resolution,  to  the  effect,  that  he  would  the  next 
morning  enter  into  the  presence  of  Mr.  Victor  E-adnor,  bear- 
ing his  family's  feelings,  for  a  discussion  upon  them.  But 
the  brutish  tumult,  in  addition  to  surcharging,  encased  him  : 
he  could  not  rightly  conceive  the  nature  of  feelings :  men 
were  driving  shoals;  he  had  lost  hearing  and  touch  of 
individual  men;  had  become  a  house  of  angrily  opposing 
parties. 

He  was  hurt,  he  knew ;  and  therefore  he  supposed  himself 
injured,  though  there  were  contrary  outcries,  and  he  admitted 
that  he  stood  free ;  he  had  not  been  inextricably  deceived. 


264  ONE  OF   OTTR  COiTQUEROBS 

The  girl  was  caught  away  to  the  thinnest  of  wisps  in  a 
dust- whirl.  Reverting  to  the  father  and  mother,  his  idea  of 
a  positive  injury,  that  was  not  without  its  congratulations, 
sank  him  down  among  his  disordered  deeper  sentiments; 
which  were  a  diver's  wreck,  where  an  armoured  livid  subter- 
marine,  a  monstrous  puff-ball  of  man,  wandered  seriously 
light  in  heaviness;  trebling  his  hundredweights  to  keep 
him  from  dancing  like  a  bladder-block  of  elastic  lumber; 
thinking  occasionally,  amid  the  mournful  spectacle,  of  the 
atmospheric  pipe  of  communication  with  the  world  above, 
whereby  he  was  deafened  yet  sustained.  One  tug  at  it,  and 
he  was  up  on  the  surface,  disengaged  from  the  hideous 
harness,  joyfully  no  more  that  burly  phantom  cleaving 
green  slime,  free !  and  the  roaring  stopped ;  the  world 
looked  flat,  foreign,  a  place  of  crusty  promise.  His  wreck^ 
animated  by  the  dim  strange  fish  below,  appeared  fairer; 
it  winked  lurefully  when  abandoned. 

The  internal  state  of  a  gentleman  who  detested  intangible 
metaphor  as  heartily  as  the  vulgarest  of  our  gobble-gobbets 
hate  it,  metaphor  only  can  describe ;  and  for  the  reason,  that 
he  had  in  him  just  something  more  than  is  within  the  com- 
pass of  the  language  of  the  meat-markets.  He  had  —  and 
had  it  not  the  less  because  he  fain  would  not  have  had  — 
sufficient  stuff  to  furnish  forth  a  souFs  epic  encounter  be- 
tween Nature  and  Circumstance :  and  metaphor,  simile, 
analysis,  all  the  fraternity  of  old  lamps  for  lighting  our 
abysmal  darkness,  have  to  be  rubbed,  that  we  may  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  fray. 

Free,  and  rejoicing;  without  the  wish  to  be  free;  at  the 
same  time  humbly  and  sadly  acquiescing  in  the  stronger 
claim  of  his  family  to  pronounce  the  decision :  such  was  the 
second  stage  of  Dudley's  perturbation  after  the  blow.  A 
letter  of  Nesta's  writing  was  in  his  pocket :  he  knew  her 
address.  He  could  not  reply  to  her  until  he  had  seen  her 
father :  and  that  interview  remained  necessarily  prospective 
until  he  had  come  to  his  exact  resolve,  not  omitting  his 
critical  approval  of  the  sentences  giving  it  shape,  stamp, 
dignity  —  a  noble's  crest,  as  it  were. 

Nesta  wrote  briefly.  The  apostrophe  was,  "Dear  Mr. 
Sowerby."  She  had  engaged  to  send  her  address.  Her 
father  had  just  gone.    The  Miss  Duvidneys  had  left  the 


A  CONVENTIONAL  GENTLEMAN  265 

hotel  yesterday  for  the  fui*nished  house  facing  the  sea. 
According  to  arrangements,  she  had  a  livery-stable  hack, 
and  had  that  morning  trotted  out  to  the  downs  with  a 
riding-master  and  company,  one  of  whom  was  ^'  an  agree- 
able lady." 

He  noticed  approvingly  her  avoidance  of  an  allusion  to 
the  "Delphica''  of  Mr.  Durance's  incomprehensible  serial 
story,  or  whatever  it  was ;  which,  as  he  had  shown  her, 
annoyed  him,  for  its  being  neither  fact  nor  fun ;  and  she 
had  insisted  on  the  fun  ;  and  he  had  painfully  tried  to  see 
it  or  anything  of  a  meaning ;  and  it  seemed  to  him  now, 
that  he  had  been  humiliated  by  the  obedience  to  her  lead  ; 
she  had  offended  by  her  harping  upon  Delphica.  However, 
here  it  was  unmentioned.  He  held  the  letter  out  to  seize  it 
in  the  large,  entire. 

Her  handwriting  was  good,  as  good  as  the  writing  of  the 
most  agreeable  lady  on  earth.  Dudley  did  not  blame  her 
for  letting  the  lady  be  deceived  in  her  —  if  she  knew  her 
position.  She  might  be  ignorant  of  it.  And  to  strangers, 
to  chance  acquaintances,  even  to  friends,  the  position,  of  the 
loathsome  name,  was  not  materially  important.  Marriage 
altered  the  view.     He  sided  with  his  family. 

He  sided,  edgeing  away,  against  his  family.  But  a  vision 
of  the  earldom  coming  to  him,  stirred  reverential  objections, 
composed  of  all  which  his  unstained  family  could  protest  in 
religion,  to  repudiate  an  alliance  with  a  stained  house,  and 
the  guilty  of  a  condonation  of  immorality.  Who  would 
have  imagined  Mr.  Eadnor  a  private  sinner  flaunting  for 
one  of  the  righteous  ?  And  she,  the  mother,  a  lady  —  quite 
a  lady;  having  really  a  sense  of  duty,  sense  of  honour! 
That  she  must  be  a  lady,  Dudley  was  convinced.  He  be- 
held through  a  porous  crape,  woven  of  formal  respectful- 
ness, with  threads  of  personal  disgust,  the  scene,  striking 
him  drearly  like  a  distant  great  mansion's  conflagration 
across  moorland  at  midnight,  of  a  lady's  breach  of  bonds 
and  plunge  of  all  for  love.  How  had  it  been  concealed  ? 
In  Dudley's  upper  sphere,  everything  was  exposed :  Scandal 
walked  naked  and  unashamed  —  figurante  of  the  polite  world. 
But  still  this  lady  was  of  the  mint  and  coin,  a  true  lady. 
Handsome  now,  she  must  have  been  beautiful.  And  a  com- 
prehensible pride  (for  so  would  Dudley  have  borne  it)  keeps 


266  ONE  OF  OVR  CONQITEROBS 

the  forsaken  man  silent  up  to  death :  .  .  .  grandly  silent ; 
but  the  loss  of  such  a  woman  is  enough  to  kill  a  man  !  Not 
in  time,  though!  Legitimacy  evidently,  by  the  mother's 
confession,  cannot  protect  where  it  is  wanted.  Dudley  was 
optically  affected  by  a  round  spot  of  the  world  swinging  its 
shadow  over  Nesta. 

He  pitied,  and  strove  to  be  sensible  of  her.  The  effort 
succeeded  so  well,  that  he  was  presently  striving  to  be  in- 
sensible. The  former  state  was  the  mounting  of  a  wall; 
the  latter  was  a  sinking  through  a  chasm.  There  would 
be  family  consultations,  abhorrent;  his  father's  agonized 
amazement  at  the  problem  presented  to  a  family  of  scrupu- 
lous principles  and  pecuniary  requirements ;  his  mother's 
blunt  mention  of  the  abominable  name  —  medisevally  vin- 
dicated in  champions  of  certain  princely  families  indeed, 
but  morally  condemned;  always  under  condemnation  of  the 
Church :  a  blot :  and  handed  down  :  Posterity,  and  it  might 
be  a  titled  posterity,  crying  out.  A  man  in  the  situation 
of  Dudley  could  not  think  solely  of  himself.  The  nobles 
of  the  land  are  bound  in  honour  to  their  posterity.  There 
you  have  one  of  the  prominent  permanent  distinctions  be- 
tween them  and  the  commonalty. 

His  mother  would  again  propose  her  chosen  bride  for  him : 
Edith  Averst,  with  the  dowry  of  a  present  one  thousand 
pounds  per  annum,  and  prospect  of  six  or  so,  excluding  Sir 
John's  estate.  Carping,  in  Leicestershire  ;  a  fair  estate, 
likely  to  fall  to  Edith ;  consumption  seized  her  brothers  as 
they  ripened.  A  fair  girl  too  ;  only  Dudley  did  not  love 
her;  he  wanted  to  love.  He  was  learning  the  trick  from 
this  other  one,  who  had  become  obscured  and  diminished, 
tainted,  to  the  thought  of  her ;  yet  not  extinct.  Sight  of 
her  was  to  be  dreaded. 

Unguiltily  tainted,  in  herself  she  was  innocent.  That 
constituted  the  unhappy  invitation  to  him  to  swallow  one 
half  of  his  feelings,  which  had  his  world's  blessing  on  it, 
for  the  beneficial  enlargement  and  enthronement  of  the 
baser  unblest  half,  which  he  hugged  and  distrusted.  Can 
innocence  issue  of  the  guilty  ?  He  asked  it,  hopeing  it  might 
be  possible :  he  had  been  educated  in  his  family  to  believe, 
that  the  laws  governing  human  institutions  are  divine  — 
until  History  has  altered  them.     They  are  altered,  to  pre- 


A  CONVENTIONAL  GlENTLEMAN  267 

sent  a  fresh,  bulwark  against  the  infidel.  His  conservative 
mind,  retiring  in  good  order,  occupied  the  next  rearward 
post  of  resistance.  Secretly  behind  it,  the  man  was  proud 
of  having  a  heart  to  beat  for  the  cause  of  the  besiegeing 
enemy,  in  the  present  instance.  When  this  was  blabbed  to 
him,  and  he  had  owned  it,  he  attributed  his  weakness  to 
excess  of  nature,  the  liking  for  a  fair  face.  —  Oh,  but 
more  !  spirit  was  in  the  sweet  eyes.  She  led  him  —  she  did 
lead  him  in  spiritual  things ;  led  him  out  of  common  circles 
of  thought,  into  refreshing  new  spheres;  he  had  reminis- 
cences of  his  having  relished  the  juices  of  the  not  quite  ob- 
viously comic,  through  her  indications:  and  really,  in 
spite  of  her  inferior  flimsy  girl's  education,  she  could  boast 
her  acquirements ;  she  was  quick,  startlingly ;  modest,  too, 
in  commerce  with  a  slower  mind  that  carried  more ;  though, 
she  laughed  and  was  a  needle  for  humour :  she  taught  him 
at  times  to  put  away  his  contempt  of  the  romantic ;  she  had 
actually  shown  him,  that  his  expressed  contempt  of  it  dis- 
guised a  dread  :  as  it  did,  and  he  was  conscious  of  the  fool- 
ishness of  it  now  while  pursuing  her  image,  while  his 
intelligence  and  senses  gave  her  the  form  and  glory  of 
young  morning. 

Wariness  counselled  Mm  to  think  it  might  be  merely  the 
play  of  her  youth;  and  also  the  disposition  of  a  man  in 
harness  of  business,  exaggeratingly  to  prize  an  imagined 
finding  of  the  complementary  feminine  of  himself.  Ven- 
erating purity  as  he  did,  the  question,  whether  the  very 
sweetest  of  pure  young  women,  having  such  an  origin,  must 
not  at  some  time  or  other  show  trace  of  the  origin,  surged 
up.  If  he  could  only  have  been  sure  of  her  moral  exemp- 
tion from  taint,  a  generous  ardour,  in  reserve  behind  his 
anxious  dubieties,  would  have  precipitated  Dudley  to  quench 
disapprobation  and  brave  the  world  under  a  buckler  of  those 
monetary  advantages,  which  he  had  but  stoutly  to  plead 
with  the  House  of  Cantor,  for  the  speedy  overcoming  of  a 
reluctance  to  receive  the  nameless  girl  and  prodigious 
heiress.  His  family's  instruction  of  him,  and  his  inherited 
tastes,  rendered  the  aspect  of  a  Nature  stripped  of  the 
clothing  of  the  laws  offensive  down  to  devilish :  we  grant 
her  certain  steps,  upon  certain  conditions  accompanied  by 
ceremonies ;  and  when  she  violates  them,  she  becomes  visibly 


^68  ONE  OF  OVU  CONQUERORS 

again  the  revolutionary  wicked  old  beast  bent  on  levelling 
our  sacredest  edifices.  An  alliance  with  any  of  her  vota- 
ries, appeared  to  Dudley  as  an  act  of  treason  to  his  house, 
his  class,  and  his  tenets.  And  nevertheless  he  was  haunted 
by  a  cry  of  criminal  happiness  for  and  at  the  commission 
of  the  act. 

He  would  not  decide  to  be  "  precipitate, "  and  the  days 
ran  their  course,  until  Lady  Grace  Halley  arrived  at  Cro- 
nidge,  a  widow.  Lady  Cantor  spoke  to  her  of  Dudley's 
unfathomable  gloom.     Lady  Grace  took  him  aside. 

She  said,  without  preface:  "You  've  heard,  have  you  !" 

"  You  were  aware  of  it  ?  "  said  he,  and  his  tone  was  irri- 
table with  a  rebuke. 

"  Coming  through  town,  for  the  first  time  yesterday.  I 
had  it — 'Of  all  men!  —  from  a  Sir  Abraham  Quatley,  to 
whom  I  was  recommended  to  go,  about  my  husband's  shares 
in  a  South  American  Railway;  and  we  talked,  and  it  came 
out.  ITe  knows  J  he  says,  it  is  not  generally  known;  and 
he  likes,  respects  Mr.  Victor  Radnor;  we  are  to  keep  the 
secret.  Hum  ?  He  had  heard  of  your  pretensions ;  and 
our  relationship,  etc. :  '  esteemed  '  it  —  you  know  the  City 
dialect  —  his  duty  to  mention,  etc.  That  was  after  I  had 
spied  on  his  forehead  the  something  I  wormed  out  of  his 
mouth.     What  are  you  going  to  do  ? '' 

"What  can  I  do?" 

"  Are  you  fond  of  the  girl  ?  " 

An  attachment  was  indicated,  as  belonging  to  the  case. 
She  was  not  a  woman  to  whom  the  breathing  of  pastoral 
passion  would  be  suitable;  yet  he  saw  that  she  despised 
him  for  a  lover;  and  still  she  professed  to  understand  his 
dilemma.  Perplexity  at  the  injustice  of  fate  and  persons 
universally,  put  a  wrinkled  mask  on  his  features  and  the 
expression  of  his  feelings.  They  were  torn,  and  the  world 
was  torn;  and  what  he  wanted,  was  delay,  time  for  him 
to  define  his  feelings  and  behold  a  recomposed  picture  of 
the  world.  He  had  already  taken  six  days.  He  pleaded 
the  shock  to  his  family. 

"  You  won't  have  such  a  chance  again,"  she  said.  Shrugs 
had  set  in. 

They  agreed  as  to  the  behaviour  of  the  girl's  mother.  It 
reflected  on  the  father,  he  thought. 


A  SMALL  THING  OR  A  GEE  AT  269 

"Difficult  thing  to  proclaim,  before  an  engagement!" 
Her  shoulders  were  restless. 

"  When  a  man's  feelings  get  entangled  !  " 

"  Oh  !  a  man's  feelings  !  I  'm  your  British  Jury  for  a 
woman's." 

"  He  has  married  her  ?  " 

She  declared  to  not  knowing  particulars.  She  could  lib 
smoothly. 

The  next  day  she  was  on  the  line  to  London,  armed 
with  the  proposal  of  an  appointment  for  the  Hon.  Dudley 
to  meet  "the  girl's  father." 


CHAPTEK,  XXVII 

CONTAINS   WHAT   IS   A   SMALL    THING   OR    A    GKEAT,    AS   THE 
SOUL   OF   THE   CHIEF   ACTOR  MAY   DECIDE 

Skepsey  ushered  Lady  Grace  into  his  master's  private 
room,  and  entertained  her  during  his  master's  absence. 
He  had  buried  his  wife,  he  said:  she  feared,  seeing  his 
posture  of  the  soaping  of  hands  at  one  shoulder,  that  he 
was  about  to  bewail  it;  and  he  did  wish  to  talk  of  it,  to 
show  his  modest  companionship  with  her  in  loss,  and  how 
a  consolation  for  our  sorrows  may  be  obtained :  but  he  won 
her  approval,  by  taking  the  acceptable  course  between  the 
dues  to  the  sabject  and  those  to  his  hearer,  as  a  model  cab 
should  drive  considerate  equally  of  horse  and  fare. 

A  day  of  holiday  at  Hampstead,  after  the  lowering  of 
the  poor  woman's  bones  into  earth,  had  been  followed  by 
a  descent  upon  London ;  and  at  night  he  had  found  himself 
in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  a  public  house,  noted 
for  sparring  exhibitions  and  instructions  on  the  first  floor; 
and  he  was  melancholy,  unable  quite  to  disperse  "the 
ravens  "  flocking  to  us  on  such  days :  though,  if  we  ask 
why  we  have  to  go  out  of  the  world,  there  is  a  correspond- 
ing inquiry,  of  what  good  was  our  coming  into  it;  and 
unless  we  are  doing  good  work  for  our  country,  the  answer 
is  not  satisfactory  —  except,  that  we  are  as  well  gone. 


270  ONE  OF  OVR   CONQUBBOBS 

Thinking  which,  he  was  accosted  by  a  young  woman :  per- 
fectly respectable,  in  every  way:  who  inquired  if  he  had 
seen  a  young  man  enter  the  door.  She  described  him,  and 
reviled  the  temptations  of  those  houses;  and  ultimately, 
as  she  insisted  upon  going  in  to  look  for  the  young  man 
and  use  her  persuasions  to  withdraw  him  from  "  that  snare 
of  Satan,  ^'  he  had  accompanied  her,  and  he  had  gone 
upstairs  and  brought  the  young  man  down.  But  friends, 
or  the  acquaintances  they  call  friends,  were  with  him,  and 
they  were  "in  drink,"  and  abused  the  youQg  woman;  and 
she  had  her  hand  on  the  young  man's  arm,  quoting  Scrip- 
ture. Sad  to  relate  of  men  bearing  the  name  of  English- 
men —  and  it  was  hardly  much  better  if  they  pleaded 
intoxication !  —  they  were  not  content  to  tear  the  young 
man  from  her  grasp,  they  hustled  her,  pushed  her  out, 
dragged  her  in  the  street. 

"It  became  me  to  step  to  her  defence:  she  was  meek," 
said  Skepsey.  "She  had  a  great  opinion  of  the  eflB.cacy 
of  quotations  from  Scripture ;  she  did  not  recriminate.  I 
was  able  to  release  her  and  the  young  man  she  protected, 
on  condition  of  my  going  upstairs  to  give  a  display  of 
my  proficiency.  1  had  assured  them,  that  the  poor  fellows 
who  stood  against  me  were  not  a  proper  match.  And  of 
course,  they  jeered,  but  they  had  the  evidence,  on  the 
pavement.  So  I  went  up  with  them.  I  was  heavily 
oppressed,  I  wanted  relief,  I  put  on  the  gloves.  He  was 
a  bigger  man ;  they  laughed  at  the  little  one.  I  told  them, 
it  depended  upon  a  knowledge  of  first  principles,  and  the 
power  to  apply  them.  I  will  not  boast,  my  lady:  my 
junior  by  ten  years,  the  man  went  down;  he  went  down  a 
second  time;  and  the  men  seemed  surprised;  I  told  them, 
it  was  nothing  but  first  principles  put  into  action.  I  men- 
tion the  incident,  for  the  extreme  relief  it  afforded  me  at 
the  close  of  a  dark  day." 

"So  you  cured  your  grief ! "  said  Lady  Grace;  and  Skep- 
sey made  way  for  his  master. 

Victor's  festival-lights  were  kindled,  beholding  her; 
cressets  on  the  window-sill,  lamps  inside. 

"  Am  I  so  welcome  ?  "  There  was  a  pull  of  emotion  at 
her  smile.  "  What  with  your  little  factotum  and  you,  we 
are  flattered  to  perdition  when  we  come  here.     He  has 


A  SjVIAll  thing  or  a  geeat  271 

been  proposing,  by  suggestion,  like  a  Court-physician,  the 
putting  on  of  his  boxing-gloves,  for  the  consolation  of  the 
widowed :  —  meant  most  kindly  !  and  it 's  a  thousand  pities 
women  haven't  their  padded  gloves." 

"  Oh !  but  our  boxing-gloves  can  do  mischief  enough. 
You  have  something  to  say,  I  see." 

"  How  do  you  see  ?  " 

"Tush,  tush." 

The  silly  ring  of  her  voice  and  the  pathless  tattle 
changed;  she  talked  to  suit  her  laden  look.  "You  hit  it. 
I  come  from  Dudley.  He  knows  the  facts.  I  wish  to  serve 
you,  in  every  way." 

Victor's  head  had  lifted. 

"Who  was  it?" 

"No  enemy." 

"Who?" 

"Her  mother.     She  did  rightly." 

"Certainly  she  did,"  said  Victor,  and  he  thought  that 
instantaneously  of  the  thing  done.  "  Oh,  then  she  spoke 
to  him!  She  has  kept  it  from  me.  For  now  nearly  a 
week  —  six  days  —  I  've  seen  her  spying  for  something  she 
expected,  like  a  face  behind  a  door  three  inches  ajar.  She 
has  not  been  half  alive ;  she  refused  explanations ;  —  she 
was  expecting  to  hear  from  him,  of  him :  —  the  decision, 
whatever  it 's  to  be ! " 

"I  can't  aid  you  there,"  said  Lady  Grace.  "He's  one 
of  the  unreadables.     He  names  Tuesday  next  week." 

"By  all  means." 

"She?" 

"  Fredi  ?  —  poor  Fredi !  — ■  ah,  my  poor  girl,  yes !  —  Ko, 
she  knows  nothing.  Here  is  the  truth  of  it:  —  she,  the 
legitimate,  lives:  they  say  she  lives.  Well,  then,  she 
lives  against  all  rules  physical  or  medical,  lives  by  sheer 
force  of  will  —  it 's  a  miracle  of  the  power  of  a  human  crea- 
ture to  ...  I  have  it  from  doctors,  friends,  attendants, 
they  can't  guess  what  she  holds  on,  to  keep  her  breath. 

—  All  the  happiness  in  life  ! —  if  only  it  could  benefit  her. 
But  it 's  the  cause  of  death  to  us.    Do  you  see,  dear  friend; 

—  you  are  a  friend,  proved  friend,"  he  took  her  hand,  and 
held  and  pressed  it,  in  great  need  of  a  sanguine  response 
to  emphasis;  and  having  this  warm   feminine  hand,  his 


272  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

ideas  ran  off  with  it.  "The  friend  I  need!  You  have 
courage.  My  Nataly ,  poor  dear  —  she  can  endure,  in  her 
quiet  way.  A  woman  of  courage  would  take  her  place 
beside  me  and  compel  the  world  to  do  her  homage,  help; 
— a  bright  ready  smile  does  it!  She  would  never  be 
beaten.  Of  course,  we  could  have  lived  under  a  bushel  — 
stifled  next  to  death!  But  I  am  for  light,  air  —  battle,  if 
you  like.  I  want  a  comrade,  not  a not  that  I  com- 
plain. I  respect,  pity,  love  —  I  do  love  her,  honour :  only, 
we  want  something  else  —  courage  —  to  face  the  enemy. 
Quite  right,  that  she  should  speak  to  Dudley  Sowerby. 
He  has  to  know,  must  know;  all  who  deal  closely  with 
us  must  know.  But  see  a  moment :  I  am  waiting  to  see 
the  impediment  dispersed,  which  puts  her  at  an  inequality 
with  the  world :  and  then  I  speak  to  all  whom  it  concerns : 
not  before :  for  her  sake.  How  is  it  now  ?  Dudley  will 
ask  .  .  .  you  understand.  And  when  I  am  forced  to  con- 
fess, that  the  mother,  the  mother  of  the  girl  he  seeks  in 
marriage,  is  not  yet  in  that  state  herself,  probably  at  that 
very  instant  the  obstacle  has  crumbled  to  dust!  I  say, 
probably:  I  have  information  —  doctors,  friends,  attend- 
ants—  they  all  declare  it  cannot  last  outside  a  week.  But 
you  are  here  —  true,  I  could  swear!  a  touch  of  a  hand  tells 
me.  A  woman's  hand  ?  Well,  yes :  I  read  by  the  touch 
of  a  woman's  hand:  —  betrays  more  than  her  looks  or  her 
lips!"  He  sank  his  voice.  "I  don't  talk  of  condoling:  if 
you  are  in  grief,  you  know  I  share  it."  He  kissed  her 
hand,  and  laid  it  on  her  lap ;  eyed  it,  and  met  her  eyes ; 
took  a  header  into  her  eyes,  and  lost  himself.  A  nip  of 
his  conscience  moved  his  tongue  to  say:  "As  for  guilt,  if 
it  were  known  ...  a  couple  of  ascetics • — absolutely!" 
But  this  was  assumed  to  be  unintelligible;  and  it  was 
merely  the  apology  to  his  conscience  in  communion  with 
the  sprite  of  a  petticoated  fair  one  who  was  being  subjected 
to  tender  little  liberties,  necessarily  addressed  in  enigmas. 
He  righted  immediately,  under  a  perception  of  the  thor- 
oughbred's contempt  for  the  barriers  of  wattled  sheep;  and 
caught  the  word  "guilt,"  to  hide  the  Philistine  citizen's 
lapse,  by  relating  historically,  in  abridgement,  the  honest 
beauty  of  the  passionate  loves  of  the  two  whom  the  world 
proscribed  for  honestly  loving.     There  was  no  guilt.     Ho 


A  SMALL  THING  OR  A  GREAT  273 

harped  on  tlie  word,  to  erase  the  recollection  of  his  first 
use  of  it. 

"  Fiddle, "  said  Lady  Grace.  "  The  thing  happened.  You 
have  now  to  carry  it  through.  You  require  a  woman's  aid 
in  a  social  matter.  Rely  on  me,  for  what  I  can  do.  You 
will  see  Dudley  on  Tuesday  ?  I  will  write.  Be  plain  with 
him  5  not  forgetting  the  gilding,  I  need  not  remark. 
Your  Nesta  has  no  aversion  ? '' 

"  Admires,  respects,  likes;  is  quite  —  is  willing." 

"Good  enough  beginning."  She  rose,  for  the  atmos- 
phere was  heated,  rather  heavy.  "And  if  one  proves  to 
be  of  aid,  you  '11  own  that  a  woman  has  her  place  in  the 
battle." 

The  fair  black-clad  widow's  quick  and  singular  inter- 
wreathing  of  the  evanescent  pretty  pouts  and  frowns  dim- 
pled like  the  brush  of  the  wind  on  a  sunny  pool  in  a  shady 
place ;  and  her  forehead  was  close  below  his  chin,  her  lips 
not  far.  Her  apparel  was  attractively  mourning.  Widows 
in  mourning,  when  they  do  not  lean  over  extremely  to  the 
Stygian  shore,  with  the  complexions  of  the  drugs  which 
expedited  the  defunct  to  the  ferry,  provoke  the  manly  arm 
within  reach  of  them  to  pluck  their  pathetic  blooming 
persons  clean  away  from  it.  What  of  the  widow  who 
visibly  likes  the  living  ?  Compassion,  sympathy,  impulse; 
and  gratitude,  impulse  again,  living  warmth;  and  a  spring 
of  the  blood  to  wrestle  with  the  King  of  Terrors  for  the 
other  poor  harper's  half-nightcapped  Eurydice;  and  a 
thirst,  sudden  as  it  is  overpowering;  and  the  solicitude,  a 
reflective  solicitude,  to  put  the  seal  on  a  thing  and  call  it 
a  fact,  to  the  astonishment  of  history;  and  a  kick  of  our 
naughty  youth  in  its  coffin;  —  all  the  insurgencies  of 
Nature,  with  her  colonel  of  the  regiment  absent,  and  her 
veering  trick  to  drive  two  vessels  at  the  cross  of  a  track 
into  collision,  combine  for  doing  that,  which  is  very  much 
more,  and  which  affects  us  at  the  time  so  much  less  than 
did  the  pressure  of  a  soft  wedded  hand  by  our  own  else- 
where pledged  one.  On  the  contrary,  we  triumph,  we 
have  the  rich  flavour  of  the  fruit  for  our  pains ;  we  com- 
mission the  historian  to  write  in  hieroglyphs  a  round  big 
fact. 

The  lady  passed  through  the  trial  submitting,  stiffening 

18 


274  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

her  shoulders,  and  at  the  close,  shutting  her  eyes.  She 
stood  cool  in  her  blush,  and  eyed  him  like  one  gravely 
awakened.  Having  been  embraced  and  kissed,  she  had  to 
consider  her  taste  for  the  mau,  and  acknowledge  a  neat- 
ness of  impetuosity  in  the  deed ;  and  he  was  neither  apolo- 
gizing culprit  nor  glorying  bandit  when  it  was  done,  but 
something  of  the  lyric  God  tempering  his  fervours  to  a 
pleased  sereneness,  not  offering  a  renewal  of  them.  He 
glowed  transparently.  He  said:  "You  are  the  woman  to 
take  a  front  place  in  the  battle !  "  With  this  woman  beside 
him,  it  was  a  conquered  world. 

Comparisons,  in  the  jotting  souvenirs  of  a  woman  of  her 
class  and  set,  favoured  him;  for  she  disliked  enterprising 
libertines  and  despised  stumbling  youths ;  and  the  genial 
simple  glow  of  his  look  assured  her  that  the  vanished  fiery 
moment  would  not  be  built  on  by  a  dating  master.  She 
owned  herself.  Or  did  she  ?  Some  understanding  of  how 
the  other  woman  had  been  won  to  the  leap  with  him,  was 
drawing  in  about  her.  She  would  have  liked  to  beg  for 
the  story;  and  she  could  as  little  do  that  as  bring  her 
tongue  to  reproach.  If  we  come  to  the  den!  she  said  to 
her  thought  of  reproach.  Our  semi-civilization  makes  it  a 
den,  where  a  scent  in  his  nostrils  will  spring  the  half- 
tamed  animal  away  to  mildness.  And  she  had  come  unan- 
ticipatingly,  without  design,  except  perhaps  to  get  a 
superior  being  to  direct  and  restrain  a  gambler's  hand; 
perhaps  for  the  fee  of  a  temporary  pressure. 

"  I  may  be  able  to  help  a  little  —  I  hope  ! "  she  fetched  a 
breath  to  say,  while  her  eyelids  mildly  sermonized;  and 
immediately  she  talked  of  her  inheritance  of  property  in 
stocks  and  shares. 

Victor  commented  passingly  on  the  soundness  of  them, 
and  talked  of  projects  he  entertained :  —  Parliament ! 
"  But  I  have  only  to  mention  it  at  home,  and  my  poor  girl 
will  set  in  for  shrinking." 

He  doated  on  the  diverse  aspect  of  the  gallant  woman  of 
the  world. 

"You  succeed  in  everything  you  do,"  said  she,  and  she 
cordially  believed  it;  and  that  belief  set  the  neighbour 
memory  palpitating.  Success  folded  her  waist,  was  warm 
upon  her  lips :  she  worshipped  the  figure  of  Success. 


A  SIVIALL  THING   OR   A   GREAT  276 

"I  can't  consent  to  fail,  it 's  true,  when  my  mind  is  on 
a  thing,"  Victor  rejoined. 

He  looked  his  mind  on  Lady  Grace.  The  shiver  of  a 
maid  went  over  her.  These  transparent  visages,  where  the 
thought  which  is  half  design  is  perceived  as  a  lightning, 
strike  lightning  into  the  physically  feebler.  Her  hand 
begged,  with  the  open  palm,  her  head  shook  thrice;  and 
though  she  did  not  step  back,  he  bowed  to  the  negation, 
and  then  she  gave  him  a  grateful  shadow  of  a  smile,  re- 
lieved, with  a  startled  view  of  how  greatly  relieved,  by 
that  sympathetic  deference  in  the  wake  of  the  capturing 
intrepidity. 

"  I  am  to  name  Tuesday  for  Dudley  ?  "  she  suggested. 

"At  any  hour  he  pleases  to  appoint." 

"  A  visit  signifies  .  .  ." 

"  Whatever  it  signifies !  " 

"I  'm  thinking  of  the  bit  of  annoyance." 

"  To  me  ?  Anything  appointed,  finds  me  ready  the  next 
minute." 

Her  smile  was  flatteringly  bright.  "By  the  way,  keep 
your  City  people  close  about  you:  entertain  as  much  as 
possible;  dine  them,"  she  said. 

"At  home?" 

"Better.  Sir  Eodwell  Blachington,  Sir  Abraham  Quat- 
ley:  and  their  wives.  There's  no  drawing  back  now. 
And  I  will  meet  them." 

She  received  a  compliment.     She  was  on  the  foot  to  go. 

But  she  had  forgotten  the  Tiddler  mine. 

The  Tiddler  mine  was  leisurely  mounting.  Victor  stated 
the  figures ;  he  saluted  her  hand,  and  Lady  Grace  passed 
out,  with  her  heart  on  the  top  of  them,  and  a  buzz  about  it 
of  the  unexpected  having  occurred.  She  had  her  experi- 
ences to  match  new  patterns  in  events ;  though  not  very 
many.  Compared  with  gambling,  the  game  of  love  was 
an  idle  entertainment.  Compared  with  other  players,  this 
man  was  gifted. 

Victor  went  in  to  Mr.  Inchling's  room,  and  kept  Inch- 
ling  from  speaking,  that  he  might  admire  him  for  he 
knew  not  what,  or  knew  not  well  what.  The  good  fellow 
was  devoted  to  his  wife.  Victor  in  old  days  had  called  the 
wife  Mrs.    Grundy.     She  gossiped,  she  was   censorious; 


276  ONE   OF   OUE   CONQUEEOES 

she  knew  —  could  not  but  know  —  the  facts;  yet  never  by 
a  shade  was  she  disrespectful.  He  had  a  curious  recollec- 
tion of  how  his  knowledge  of  Inchling  and  his  wife  being 
always  in  concert,  entirely  —  whatever  they  might  think  in 
private  —  devoted  to  him  in  action,  had  influenced,  if  it 
had  not  originally  sprung,  his  resolve  to  cast  off  the  pesti- 
lential cloak  of  obscurity  shortening  his  days,  and  emerge 
before  a  world  he  could  illumine  to  give  him  back  splendid 
reflections.  Inchling  and  his  wife,  it  was:  because  the 
two  were  one :  and  if  one,  and  subservient  to  him,  know- 
ing all  the  story,  why,  it  foreshadowed  a  conquered  world! 
They  were  the  one  pulse  of  the  married  Grundy  beating  in 
his  hand.     So  it  had  been. 

He  rattled  his  views  upon  Indian  business,  to  hold  Inch- 
ling silent,  and  let  his  mind  dwell  almost  lovingly  on  the 
good  faithful  spouse,  who  had  no  phosphorescent  writing 
of  a  recent  throbbing  event  on  the  four  walls  of  his 
room. 

Nataly  was  not  so  generously  encountered  in  idea. 

He  felt  and  regretted  this.  He  greeted  her  with  a 
doubled  affectionateness.  Her  pitiable  deficiency  of  cour- 
age, excusing  a  man  for  this  and  that  small  matter  in  the 
thick  of  the  conflict,  made  demands  on  him  for  gentle 
treatment. 

"You  have  not  seen  any  one?"  she  asked. 

"  City  people.     And  you,  my  love  ?  " 

"Mr.  Barmby  called.  He  has  gone  down  to  Tunbridge 
Wells  for  a  week,  to  some  friend  there."  She  added,  in 
pain  of  thought :  "  I  have  seen  Dartrey.  He  has  brought 
Lord  Clanconan  to  town,  for  a  consultation,  and  expects 
he  will  have  to  take  him  to  Brighton." 

"Brighton?  What  a  life  for  a  man  like  Dartrey,  at 
Brighton!" 

Her  breast  heaved.  "  If  I  cannot  see  my  Nesta  there, 
he  will  bring  her  up  to  me  for  a  day." 

"But,  my  dear,  I  will  bring  her  up  to  you,  if  it  is  your 
wish  to  see  her." 

"It  is  becoming  imperative  that  I  should." 

"No  hurry,  no  hurry:  wait  till  the  end  of  next  week. 
And  I  must  see  Dartrey,  on  business,  at  once !  " 

She  gave  the  address  in  a  neighbouring  square.     He  had 


MES.   MARSETT  277 

minutes  to  spare  before  dinner,  and  flew.     Slie  was  not 
inquisitive. 

Colney  Durance  had  told  Dartrey,  that  Victor  was  kill- 
ing her.  She  had  little  animation ;  her  smiles  were  ready, 
but  faint.  After  her  interview  with  Dudle}^,  there  had 
been  a  swoon  at  home;  and  her  maid,  sworn  to  secrecy, 
willingly  spared  a  tender-hearted  husband  —  so  good  a 
master. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

MRS.    MARSETT 


Little  acts  of  kindness  were  not  beyond  the  range  of 
Colney  Durance,  and  he  ran  down  to  Brighton,  to  give 
the  exiled  Nesta  some  taste  of  her  friendly  London  circle. 
The  Duvidney  ladies  knew  that  the  dreaded  gentleman  had 
a  regard  for  the  girl.  Their  own,  which  was  becoming 
warmer  than  they  liked  to  think,  was  impressed  by  his 
manner  of  conversing  with  her.  "  Child  though  she  was," 
he  paid  her  the  compliment  of  a  sober  as  well  as  a  satirical 
review  of  the  day's  political  matter  and  recent  publica- 
tions ;  and  the  ladies  were  introduced,  in  a  wonderment,  to 
the  damsel  Delphica.  They  listened  placidly  to  a  dis- 
course upon  her  performances,  Japanese  to  their  under- 
standings. 

At  New  York,  behold,  another  adventurous  represen- 
tative and  advocate  of  the  European  tongues  has  joined 
the  paTty:  Signor  Jeridomani:  a  philologer,  of  course;  a 
politician  in  addition;  Macchiavelli  redivivus,  it  seems 
to  fair  Delphica.  The  speech  he  delivers  at  the  Syndicate 
Delmonico  Dinner,  is  justly  applauded  by  the  Kew  York 
Press  as  a  masterpiece  of  astuteness.  He  appears  to  be 
the  only  one  of  the  party  who  has  an  eye  for  the  dark. 
She  fancies  she  may  know  a  more  widely  awake  in  the 
abstract.  But  now,  thanks  to  jubilant  Journals  and 
Homeric  laughter  over  the  Continent,  the  secret  is  out,  in 
so  far  as  the  concurrents  are  all  unmasked  and  exposed  for 
the  edification  of  the  American  public.    Dr.  Bouthoin'a 


278  ONE   OF   OUE  CONQUEEOES 

eyebrows  are  up,  Mr.  Semliians  disfigures  his  name  by 
greatly  gaping.  Shall  they  return  to  their  Great  Britain 
indignant  ?  Patriotism,  with  the  sauce  of  a  luxurious 
expedition  at  no  cost  to  the  private  purse,  restrains  them. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  sign  of  any  one  of  the  others  intend- 
ing to  quit  the  expedition;  and  Mr.  Semhians  has  done  a 
marvel  or  two  in  the  cricket-field :  Old  England  looks  up 
where  she  can.  What  is  painfully  extraordinary  to  our 
couple,  they  find  in  the  frigid  attitude  of  the  Americans 
toward  their  "common  tongue;"  together  with  the  rumour 
of  a  design  to  despatch  an  American  rival  emissary  to 
Japan. 

Nesta  listened,  inquired,  commented,  laughed ;  the  ladies 
could  not  have  a  doubt  that  she  was  interested  and  under- 
stood. She  would  have  sketches  of  scenes  between  Del- 
phica  and  M.  Falarique,  with  whom  the  young  Germania 
was  cleverly  ingenuous  indeed  —  a  seminary  Celim^ne;  and 
between  Delphica  and  M.  Mytharete,  with  whom  she  was 
archaeological,  ravishingly  amoebsean  of  Homer.  Dr.  Gan- 
nius  holds  a  trump  card  in  his  artless  daughter,  conjectur- 
ally,  for  the  establishment  of  the  language  of  the  gutturals 
in  the  far  East.  He  has  now  a  suspicion,  that  the  inven- 
tive M.  Falarique,  melted  down  to  sobriety  by  misfortune, 
may  some  day  startle  their  camp  by  the  cast  of  more  than 
a  crow  into  it,  and  he  is  bent  on  establishing  alliances; 
frightens  the  supple  Signor  Jeridomani  to  lingual  fixity; 
eulogizes  Football,  with  Dr.  Bouthoin;  and  retracts,  or 
modifies,  his  dictum  upon  the  English,  that,  "masculine 
brawn  they  have  in  their  bodies,  but  muscle  they  have  not 
in  their  feminine  minds;''  to  exalt  them,  for  a  signally 
clean,  if  a  dense,  people : 

"Amousia,  not  Alousia,  is  their  enemy."  —  How,  when 
we  have  the  noblest  crop  of  poets  ?  —  "  You  have  never 
heartily  embraced  those  aliens  among  you  until  you  learnt 
from  us,  that  you  might  brag  of  them."  —  Have  they  not 
endowed  us  with  the  richest  of  languages  ?  —  "  The  words 
of  which  are  used  by  you,  as  old  slippers,  for  puns."  Mr. 
Semhians  has  been  superciliously  and  ineffectively  pun- 
ning in  foreign  presences :  he  and  his  chief  are  inwardly 
shocked  by  a  new  perception;  —  What  if,  now  that  we 
have  the  populace  for  paymaster,  subservience  to  the  lit- 


MRS.   IMAESETT  279 

erary  tastes  of  the  populace  should  reduce  the  nation  to  its 
lowest  mental  level,  and  render  us  not  only  unable  to  com- 
pete with  the  foreigner,  but  unintelligible  to  him,  although 
so  proudly  paid  at  home !  Is  it  not  thus  that  nations  are 
seen  of  the  Highest  to  be  devouring  themselves  ? 

"For,"  says  Dr.  Gannius,  as  if  divining  them,  "this 
excessive  and  applauded  productiveness,  both  of  your 
juvenile  and  your  senile,  in  your  modern  literature,  is  it 
ever  a  crop  ?  Is  it  even  the  restorative  perishable  stuff  of 
the  markets  ?  Is  it  not  rather  your  street-pavement's 
patter  of  raindrops,  incessantly  in  motion,  and  as  fruit- 
ful ?  "  Mr.  Semhians  appeals  to  Delphica.  "  Genius  you 
have, "  says  she,  stiffening  his  neck-band,  "  genius  in  super- 
abundance:"—  he  throttles  to  the  complexion  of  the 
peony:  —  "perhaps  criticism  is  wanting."  Dr.  Gannius 
adds:  "Perhaps  it  is  the  drill-sergeant  everywhere  want- 
ing for  an  unrivalled  splendid  rabble  !  " 

Coliiey  left  the  whole  body  of  concurrents  on  the  raised 
flooring  of  a  famous  New  York  Hall,  clearly  entrapped, 
and  incited  to  debate  before  an  enormous  audience,  as  to 
the  merits  of  their  respective  languages.  "I  hear,"  says 
Dr.  Bouthoin  to  Mr.  Semhians  (whose  gape  is  daily  extend- 
ing), "that  the  tickets  cost  ten  dollars!  " 

There  was  not  enough  of  Delphica  for  Nesta. 

Colney  asked :  "  Have  you  seen  any  of  our  band  ?  " 

"No,"  she  said,  with  good  cheer,  and  became  thoughtful, 
conscious  of  a  funny  reason  for  the  wish  to  hear  of  the 
fictitious  creature  disliked  by  Dudley.  A  funny  and  a 
naughty  reason,  was  it  ?  Not  so  very  naughty :  but  it  was 
funny;  for  it  was  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  Dudley,  with- 
out an  inferior  feeling  at  all,  such  as  girls  should  have. 

Colney  brought  his  viola  for  a  duet ;  they  had  a  pleasant 
musical  evening,  as  in  old  days  at  Creckholt ;  and  Nesta, 
going  upstairs  with  the  ladies  to  bed,  made  them  share 
her  father's  amused  view  of  the  lamb  of  the  flock  this 
bitter  gentleman  became  when  he  had  the  melodious  in- 
strument tucked  under  his  chin.  He  was  a  guest  for  the 
night.  Dressing  in  the  early  hour,  Nesta  saw  him  from 
her  window  on  the  parade,  and  soon  joined  him,  to  hear 
him  at  his  bitterest,  in  the  flush  of  the  brine.  "These 
lengths   of  blank-faced  terraces  fronting  sea!"  were  the 


280  ONE   OF  OTTR   CONQUERORS 

satirist's  present  black  beast.  "  So  these  moneyed  Englisli 
shoulder  to  the  front  place;  and  that  is  the  appearance 
they  offer  to  their  commercial  God ! "  He  gazed  along 
the  miles  of  "English  countenance,"  drearily  laughing. 
Changeful  ocean  seemed  to  laugh  at  the  spectacle.  Some 
Orphic  joke  inspired  his  exclamation:  "Capital!" 

"Come  where  the  shops  are/'  said  Nesta. 

"  And  how  many  thousand  parsons  have  you  here  ?  " 

"Ten,  I  think,"  she  answered  in  his  vein,  and  warmed 
h  im ;  leading  him  contemplatively  to  scrutinize  her  admirers : 
the  Rev.  Septimus;  Mr.  Sowerby. 

"News  of  our  friend  of  the  whimpering  flute?" 

"  Here  ?  no.     I  have  to  understand  you  !  " 

Colney  cast  a  weariful  look  backward  on  the  "  regiments 
of  Anglo-Chinese  "  represented  to  him  by  the  moneyed 
terraces,  and  said :  "  The  face  of  a  stopped  watch !  —  the 
only  meaning  it  has  is  past  date." 

He  had  no  liking  for  Dudley  Sowerby.  But  it  might 
have  been  an  allusion  to  the  general  view  of  the  houses. 
But  again,  "  the  meaning  of  it  past  date,"  stuck  in  her 
memor}^  A  certain  face  close  on  handsome,  had  a  fatal 
susceptibility  to  caricature. 

She  spoke  of  her  "  exile  " :  wanted  Skepsey  to  come  down 
to  her;  moaned  over  the  loss  of  her  Louise.  The  puzzle 
of  the  reason  for  the  long  separation  from  her  parents ,  was 
evident  in  her  mind,  and  unmentioned. 

They  turned  on  to  the  pier. 

Nesta  reminded  him  of  certain  verses  he  had  written  to 
celebrate  her  visit  to  the  place  when  she  was  a  child : 

"  *  ^nJ  then  along  tJie  pier  we  sped, 
And  there  we  saw  a  Whale  : 
He  seemed  to  have  a  Normous  Heady 
And  not  a  hit  oj  Tail!  '  " 

"  Manifestly  a  foreigner  to  our  shores,  where  the  exactly 
inverse  condition  rules,"  Colney  said. 

^^  ^  And  then  we  scampered  on  the  heach. 
To  chase  the  foaming  tvave ; 
And  when  we  ran  beyond  its  reach 
We  all  became  more  brave.*  " 


MUS.   MAESETt  281 

Colney  remarked:  "I  was  a  poet  —  for  once." 

A  neat-legged  Parisianly-booted  lady,  having  the  sea- 
winds  very  enterprising  with  her  dark  wavy  locks  and 
jacket  and  skirts,  gave  a  cry  of  pleasure  and  a  silvery 
"You  dear  ! "  at  sight  of  Nesta;  then  at  sight  of  one  of  us, 
moderated  her  tone  to  a  propriety  equalling  the  most  con- 
ventional.    "  We  ride  to-day  ?  " 

"I  shall  be  one,"  said  Nesta. 

"  It  would  not  be  the  commonest  pleasure  to  me,  if  you 
were  absent." 

"Till  eleven,  then!" 

"After  my  morning  letter  to  Ned." 

She  sprinkled  silvery  sound  on  that  name  or  on  the 
adieu,  blushed,  blinked,  frowned,  sweetened  her  lip-lines, 
bit  at  the  under  one ,  and  passed  in  a  discomposure. 

"The  lady  ?"  Colney  asked. 

"  She  is  —  I  meet  her  in  the  troop  conducted  by  the 
riding-master:  Mrs.  Marsett." 

"And  who  is  Ned?" 

"  It  is  her  husband,  to  whom  she  writes  every  morning. 
He  is  a  captain  in  the  army,  or  was.  He  is  in  Norway, 
fishing." 

"  Then  the  probability  is,  that  the  English  officer  con- 
tinues his  military  studies." 

"  Do  you  not  think  her  handsome,  Mr.  Durance  ?  " 

"  Ned  may  boast  of  his  possession,  when  he  has  trimmed 
it  and  toned  it  a  little." 

"She  is  different,  if  you  are  alone  with  her." 

"It  is  not  unusual,"  said  Colney. 

At  eleven  o'clock  he  was  in  London,  and  Nesta  rode  be- 
side Mrs.  Marsett  amid  the  troop. 

A  South-easterly  wind  blew  the  waters  to  shifty  goldleaf 
prints  of  brilliance  under  the  sun. 

"I  took  a  liberty  this  morning,  I  called  you  *  Dear '  this 
morning,"  the  lady  said.  "It 's  what  I  feel,  only  I  have 
no  right  to  blurt  out  everything  I  feel,  and  I  was  ashamed. 
I  am  sure  I  must  have  appeared  ridiculous.  I  got  quite 
nervous." 

"You  would  not  be  ridiculous  to  me.^' 

"I  remember  I  spoke  of  Ned." 

"You  have  spoken  of  him  before," 


282  ONE  OP  OUR   CONQUEROES 

"Oh.!  I  know:  to  you  alone.  I  should  like  to  pluck 
out  my  heart  and  pitch  it  on  the  waves,  to  see  whether  it 
would  sink  or  swim.  That's  a  funny  idea,  isn't  it!  I 
tell  you  everything  that  comes  up.  What  shall  I  do  when 
I  lose  you!  You  always  make  me  feel  you've  a  lot  of 
poetry  ready-made  in  you." 

"We  will  write.  And  you  will  have  your  husband 
then." 

"  When  I  had  finished  my  letter  to  Ned,  I  dropped  my 
head  on  it  and  behaved  like  a  fool  for  several  minutes.  I 
can't  bear  the  thought  of  losing  you !  " 

''But  you  don't  lose  me,"  said  Nesta;  "there  is  no 
ground  for  your  supposing  that  you  will.  And  your  wish 
not  to  lose  me,  binds  me  to  you  more  closely." 

"If  you  knew!"  Mrs.  Marsett  caught  at  her  slippery 
tongue,  and  she  carolled :  "  If  we  all  knew  everything,  we 
should  be  wiser,  and  what  a  naked  lot  of  people  we 
should  be ! " 

They  were  crossing  the  passage  of  a  cavalcade  of  gentle- 
men, at  the  end  of  the  East  Cliff.  One  among  them,  large 
and  dominant,  with  a  playful  voice  of  brass,  cried  out: 
"And  how  do  you  do,  Mrs.  Judith  Marsett  —  ha?  Beau- 
tiful morning  ?  " 

Mrs.  Marsett's  figure  tightened ;  she  rode  stonily  erect, 
looked  level  ahead.  Her  woman's  red  mouth  was  shut  fast 
on  a  fighting  underlip. 

"He  did  not  salute  you,"  Nesta  remarked,  to  justify 
her  for  not  having  responded. 

The  lady  breathed  a  low  thunder:  "Coward!  " 

"He  cannot  have  intended  to  insult  you,"  said  Nesta. 

"  That  man  knows  I  will  not  notice  him.  He  is  a  beast. 
He  will  learn  that  I  carry  a  horsewhip." 

"Are  you  not  taking  a  little  incident  too  much  to  heart  ?  " 

The  sigh  of  the  heavily  laden  came  from  Mrs.  Marsett: 
"  Am  I  pale  ?  I  dare  say.  I  shall  go  on  my  knees  to-night 
hating  myself  that  I  was  born  '  one  of  the  frail  sex.'  We 
are,  or  we  should  ride  at  the  coward  and  strike  him  to  the 
ground.  Pray,  pray  do  not  look  distressed!  Now  you 
know  my  Christian  name.  That  dog  of  a  man  barks  it  out 
on  the  roads.     It  does  n't  matter." 

"He  has  offended  you  before  ?" 


MES.  MAKSETT  283 

"You  are  near  me.  They  can't  hurt  me,  can't  touch  me, 
when  I  think  that  I  'm  talking  with  you.  How  I  envy 
those  who  call  you  by  your  Christian  name." 

"Nesta,"  said  smiling  Nesta.  The  smile  was  forced, 
that  she  might  show  kindness,  for  the  lady  was  jarring  on 
her. 

Mrs.  Marsett  opened  her  lips:  "Oh,  my  God,  I  shall  be 
crying!  —  let 's  gallop.  No,  wait,  I  '11  tell  you.  I  wish  I 
could!  I  will  tell  you  of  that  man.  That  man  is  Major 
Worrell.  One  of  the  majors  who  manage  to  get  to  their 
grade.  A  retired  warrior.  He  married  a  handsome  woman, 
above  him  in  rank,  with  money;  a  good  woman.  She 
was  a  good  woman,  or  she  would  have  had  her  vengeance, 
and  there  was  never  a  word  against  her.  She  must  have 
loved  that  —  Ned  calls  him,  full-blooded  ox.  He  spent 
her  money  and  he  deceived  her.  —  You  innocent !  Oh, 
you  dear!  I'd  give  the  world  to  have  your  eyes.  I've 
heard  tell  of  *  crystal  clear, '  but  eyes  like  yours  have  to 
tell  me  how  deep  and  clear.  Such  a  world  for  them  to 
be  in !  I  did  pray,  and  used  your  name  last  night  on  my 
knees,  that  you  —  I  said  Nesta  —  might  never  have  to  go 
through  other  women's  miseries.  Ah  me!  I  have  to  tell 
you  he  deceived  her.     You  don't  quite  understand." 

"  I  do  understand, "  said  Nesta. 

"God  help  you  —  I  am  excited  to-day.  That  man  is 
poison  to  me.  His  wife  forgave  him  three  times.  On 
three  occasions,  that  unhappy  woman  forgave  him.  He  is 
great  at  his  oaths,  and  a  big  breaker  of  them.  She  walked 
out  one  November  afternoon  and  met  him  riding  along 
with  a  notorious  creature.  You  know  there  are  bad 
women.  They  passed  her,  laughing.  And  look  there, 
Nesta,  see  that  groyne;  that  very  one."  Mrs.  Marsett 
pointed  her  whip  hard  out.  "  The  poor  lady  went  down 
from  the  height  here;  she  walked  into  that  rough  water 
—  look !  —  steadying  herself  along  it,  and  she  plunged ;  she 
never  came  out  alive.  A  week  after  her  burial,  Major 
Worrell  —  I  've  told  you  enough." 

"We  '11  gallop  now,"  said  Nesta. 

Mrs.  Marsett' s  talk,  her  presence  hardly  less,  affected 
the  girl  with  those  intimations  of  tumult  shown  upon 
smooth  waters  when  the  great  elements  are  conspiring. 


284  OKE  OF  OTTIt  COKQUERORS 

She  felt  that  there  was  a  cause  why  she  had  to  pity,  did 
pity  her.  It  might  be,  that  Captain  Marsett  wedded  one 
who  was  of  inferior  station,  and  his  wife  had  to  bear  blows 
from  cruel  people.  The  supposition  seemed  probable. 
The  girl  accepted  it ;  for  beyond  it,  as  the  gathering  of  the 
gale  masked  by  hills,  lay  a  brewing  silence.  What  ?  She 
did  not  reflect.  Her  quick  physical  sensibility  curled  to 
some  breath  of  heated  atmosphere  brought  about  her  by 
this  new  acquaintance :  not  pleasant,  if  she  had  thought  of 
pleasure:  intensely  suggestive  of  our  life  at  the  consuming 
tragic  core,  round  which  the  furnace  pants.  But  she  was 
unreflecting,  feeling  only  a  beyond  and  hidden. 

Besides,  she  was  an  exile.  Spelling  at  dark  things  in 
the  dark,  getting  to  have  the  sight  which  peruses  darkness, 
she  touched  the  door  of  a  mystery  that  denied  her  its  key, 
but  showed  the  lock ;  and  her  life  was  beginning  to  know 
of  hours  that  fretted  her  to  recklessness.  Her  friend 
Louise  was  absent:  she  had  so  few  friends  —  owing  to  that 
unsolved  reason:  she  wanted  one,  of  any  kind,  if  only 
gentle:  and  this  lady  seemed  to  need  her:  and  she  flat- 
tered ;  Nesta  was  in  the  mood  for  swallowing  and  digesting 
and  making  sweet  blood  of  flattery. 

At  one  time,  she  liked  Mrs.  Marsett  best  absent:  in 
musing  on  her,  wishing  her  well,  having  said  the  adieu. 
For  it  was  wearisome  to  hear  praises  of  "  innocence ; "  and 
women  can  do  so  little  to  cure  that  "wickedness  of  men," 
among  the  lady's  conversational  themes;  and  "love"  too: 
it  may  be  a  "  plague, "  and  it  may  be  "  heaven :  "  it  is  better 
left  unspoken  of.  But  there  were  times  when  Mrs.  Mar- 
sett's  looks  and  tones  touched  compassion  to  press  her 
hand :  an  act  that  had  a  pledgeing  signification  in  the  girl's 
bosom :  and  when,  by  the  simple  avoidance  of  ejaculatory 
fervours,  Mrs.  Marsett's  quieted  good  looks  had  a  shadow 
of  a  tender  charm,  more  pathetic  than  her  outcries  were. 

These  had  not  always  the  sanction  of  polite  usage:  and 
her  English  was  guilty  of  sudden  lapses  to  the  Thames- 
water  English  of  commerce  and  drainage  instead  of  the 
upper  wells.  But  there  are  many  uneducated  ladies  in 
the  land.  Many,  too,  whose  tastes  in  romantic  literature 
betray  now  and  then  by  peeps  a  similarity  to  Nesta's  maid 
Mary's.     Mrs.  Marsett  liked  love,  blood,  and  adventure. 


MRS.   MARSETT  285 

She  had,  moreover,  a  favourite  noble  poet,  and  she  begged 
ISTesta's  pardon  for  naming  him,  and  she  v/ould  not  name 
him,  and  told  her  she  must  not  read  him  until  she  was  a 
married  woman,  because  he  did  mischief  to  girls.  There- 
upon she  fell  into  one  of  her  silences,  emerging  with  a 
cry  of  hate  of  herself  for  having  ever  read  him.  She  did 
not  blame  the  bard.  And,  ah,  poor  bard!  he  fought  his 
battle :  he  shall  not  be  named  for  the  brand  on  the  name. 
He  has  lit  a  sulphur  match  for  the  lower  of  nature  through 
many  a  generation ;  and  to  be  forgiven  by  sad  frail  souls 
who  could  accuse  him  of  pipeing  devil's  agent  to  them  at 
the  perilous  instant  —  poor  girls  too !  —  is  chastisement 
enough.  This  it  is  to  be  the  author  of  unholy  sweets :  a 
Posterity  sitting  in  judgement  will  grant,  that  they  were 
part  of  his  honest  battle  with  the  hypocrite  English  Philis- 
tine, without  being  dupe  of  the  plea  or  at  all  the  thirsty 
swallower  of  his  sugary  brandy.  Mrs.  Marsett  expressed 
aloud  her  gladness  of  escape  in  never  having  met  a  man 
like  him ;  followed  by  her  regret  that  "  Ned ''  was  so  utterly 
unlike ;  except  "  perhaps  "  —  and  she  hummed ;  she  was  off 
on  the  fraternity  in  wickedness. 

Nesta's  ears  were  fatigued.  "My  mother  writes  of 
you,"  she  said,  to  vary  the  subject. 

Mrs.  Marsett  looked.  She  sighed  downright :  "  I  have 
had  my  dream  of  a  friend !  —  It  was  that  gentleman  with 
you  on  the  pier !     Your  mother  objects  ?  " 

"She  has  inquired,  nothing  more." 

"  I  am  not  twenty -three :  not  as  old  as  I  should  be,  for  a 
guide  to  you.  I  know  I  would  never  do  you  harm.  That 
I  know.  I  would  walk  into  that  water  first,  and  take  Mrs. 
WorrelPs  plunge:  —the  last  bath;  a  thorough  cleanser  for 
a  woman!  Only,  she  was  a  good  woman  and  did  n't  want 
it,  as  we  —  as  lots  of  us  do :  —  to  wash  off  all  recollection 
of  having  met  a  man !  Your  mother  would  not  like  me  to 
call  you  ISTesta!  I  have  never  begged  you  to  call  me 
Judith.  Damnable  name! "  Mrs.  Marsett  revelled  in  the 
heat  of  the  curse  on  it,  as  a  relief  to  torture  of  the  breast, 
until  a  sense  of  the  girPs  alarmed  hearing  sent  the  word 
reverberating  along  her  nerves  and  shocked  her  with  such 
an  exposure  of  our  Shaggy  wild  one  on  a  lady's  lips.  She 
murmured:  "Forgive  me/'  and  had  the  passion  to  repeat 


286  ONE   OF   OUH   CONQUEROES 

the  epithet  in  shrieks,  and  scratch  up  male  speech  for  a 
hatefuller;  but  the  twitch  of  Nesta's  brows  made  her  say; 
"Do  pardon  me.  I  did  something  in  Scripture.  Judith 
couhl  again.  Since  that  brute  Worrell  crossed  me  riding 
with  you,  I  loathe  my  name;  I  want  to  do  things.  I  have 
offended  you.'' 

"  We  have  been  taught  differently.  I  do  not  use  those 
words.     Nothing  else." 

"  They  frighten  you." 

"They  make  me  shut;  that  is  all." 

"  Supposing  you  were  some  day  to  discover  .  .  .  ta-ta-ta, 
all  the  things  there  are  in  the  world."  Mrs.  Marsett  let 
fly  an  artificial  chirrup.  "  You  must  have  some  ideas  of 
me." 

"I  think  you  have  had  unhappy  experiences." 

"Nesta  .  .  .  just  now  and  then!  the  first  time  we  rode 
out  together,  coming  back  from  the  downs,  I  remember,  I 
spoke,  without  thinking  —  I  was  enraged  —  of  a  case  in  the 
newspapers ;  and  you  had  seen  it,  and  you  were  not  afraid 
to  talk  of  it.  I  remember  I  thought,  Well,  for  a  girl,  she  's 
bold !  I  thought  you  knew  more  than  a  girl  ought  to 
know :  until  —  you  did  —  you  set  my  heart  going.  You 
spoke  of  the  poor  women  like  an  angel  of  compassion.  You 
said,  we  were  all  mixed  up  with  their  fate  —  I  forget  the 
words.  But  no  one  ever  heard  in  Church  anything  that 
touched  me  so.  I  worshipped  you.  You  said,  you  thought 
of  them  often,  and  longed  to  find  out  what  you  could  do 
to  help.  And  I  thought,  if  they  could  hear  you,  and  only 
come  near  you,  as  I  was  —  ah,  my  heaven  !  —  Unhappy 
experiences  ?  Yes.  But  when  men  get  women  on  the 
slope  to  their  perdition,  they  have  no  mercy,  none.  They 
deceive,  and  they  lie;  they  are  false  in  acts  and  words; 
they  do  as  much  as  murder.  They  're  never  hanged  for  it. 
They  make  the  Laws !  And  then  they  become  fathers  of 
families,  and  point  the  finger  at  the  '  wretched  creatures.' 
They  have  a  dozen  names  against  women,  for  one  at 
themselves." 

"It  maddens  me  at  times  to  think!  .  .  ."  said  Nesta, 
burning  with  the  sting  of  vile  names. 

"  Oh,  there  are  bad  women  as  well  as  bad  men :  but  men 
have  the  power  and  the  lead,  and  they  take  advantage  of 


MRS.   MAESETT  287 

it;  and  then  they  turn  round  and  execrate  us  for  not  hav- 
ing what  they  have  robbed  us  of !  " 

''I  blame  women  —  if  I  may  dare,  at  my  age,"  said 
Nesta,  and  her  bosom  heaved.  "Women  should  feel  for 
their  sex;  they  should  not  allow  the  names;  they  should 
go  among  their  unhappier  sisters.  At  the  worst,  they  are 
sisters !  I  am  sure,  that  fallen  cannot  mean  —  Christ 
shows  it  does  not.  He  changes  the  tone  of  Scripture.  The 
women  who  are  made  outcasts,  must  be  hopeless  and  go  to 
utter  ruin.  We  should,  if  we  pretend  to  be  better,  step 
between  them  and  that.  There  cannot  be  any  goodness 
unless  it  is  a  practiced  goodness.  Otherwise  it  is  nothing 
more  than  paint  on  canvas.  You  speak  to  me  of  my  inno- 
cence. What  is  it  worth,  if  it  is  only  a  picture  and  does 
no  work  to  help  to  rescue?  I  fear  I  think  most  of  the 
dreadful  names  that  redden  and  sicken  us.  —  The  Old 
Testament !  —  I  have  a  French  friend,  a  Mademoiselle 
Louise  de  Seilles  —  you  should  hear  her :  she  is  intensely 
French,  and  a  Eoman  Catholic,  everything  which  we  are 
not:  but  so  human,  so  wise,  and  so  full  of  the  pride  of  her 
sex  !  I  love  her.  It  is  love.  She  will  never  marry  until 
she  meets  a  man  who  has  the  respect  for  women,  for  all 
women.  We  both  think  we  cannot  separate  ourselves  from 
our  sisters.  She  seems  to  me  to  wither  men,  when  she 
speaks  of  their  injustice,  their  snares  to  mislead  and  their 
cruelty  when  they  have  succeeded.  She  is  right,  it  is  the 
—  brute:  there  is  no  other  word." 

"And  French  and  good!"  Mrs.  Marsett  ejaculated. 
"My  Ned  reads  French  novels,  and  he  says,  their  wo- 
men .  .  .  But  your  mademoiselle  is  a  real  one.  If  she 
says  all  that,  I  could  kneel  to  her,  French  or  not.  Does 
she  talk  much  about  men  and  women  ? " 

"  Not  often :  we  lose  our  tempers.  She  wants  women  to 
have  professions ;  at  present  they  have  not  much  choice  to 
avoid  being  penniless.  Poverty,  and  the  sight  of  luxury ! 
It  seems  as  if  we  produced  the  situation,  to  create  an 
envious  thirst,  and  cause  the  misery.  Things  are  improv- 
ing for  them;  but  we  groan  at  the  slowness  of  it." 

Mrs.  Marsett  now  declared  a  belief  that  women  were 
nearly  quite  as  bad  as  men.  "  I  don't  think  I  could  take  up 
with  a  profession.  Unless  to  be  a  singer.  Ah!  Do  you  sing?" 


288  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

r''  Nesta  smiled:  "Yes,  I  sing." 

"  How  I  should  like  to  hear  you !  My  Ned's  a  thorough 
Englishman  —  gentleman,  you  know :  he  cares  only  for 
sport;  Shooting,  Fishing,  Hunting;  and  Football,  Cricket, 
Kowing,  and  matches.  He  's  immensely  proud  of  England 
in  those  things.  And  such  muscle  he  has!  —  though  he 
begins  to  fancy  his  heart 's  rather  weak.  It 's  digestion,  I 
tell  him.  But  he  takes  me  to  the  Opera  sometimes — ■ 
Italian  Opera;  he  can't  stand  German.  Down  at  his  place 
in  Leicestershire,  he  tells  me,  when  there  's  company,  he 
has  —  I  'm  sure  you  sing  beautifully.  When  I  hear  beau- 
tiful singing,  even  from  a  woman  they  tell  tales  of,  upon 
my  word,  it's  true,  I  feel  my  sins  all  melting  out  of  me 
and  I  'm  new-made:  I  can't  bear  Ned  to  speak.  Would 
you  one  day,  one  afternoon,  before  the  end  of  next  week  ? 
—  it  would  do  me  such  real  good,  you  can't  guess  how 
much ;  if  I  could  persuade  you !  I  know  I  'm  asking  some- 
thing out  of  rules.  For  jusfc  half  an  hour!  I  judge  by 
your  voice  in  talking.  Oh  !  it  would  do  me  good  —  good 
—good  to  hear  you  sing.  There  is  a  tuned  piano  —  a 
cottage;  I  don't  think  it  sounds  badly.  You  would  not 
see  any  great  harm  in  calling  on  me  ?  —  once  ! " 

"No,"  said  Nesta.  And  it  was  her  nature  that  projected 
the  word.  Her  awakened  wits  were  travelling  to  her  from 
a  distance,  and  she  had  an  intimation  of  their  tidings ;  and 
she  could  not  have  said  what  they  were;  or  why,  for  a 
moment,  she  hesitated  to  promise  she  would  come.  Her 
vision  of  the  reality  of  things  was  without  written  titles, 
to  put  the  stamp  of  the  world  on  it.  She  felt  this  lady  to 
be  one  encompassed  and  in  the  hug  of  the  elementary  forces, 
which  are  the  terrors  to  inexperienced  pure  young  women. 
But  she  looked  at  her,  and  dared  trust  those  lips,  those 
eyes.  She  saw,  through  whatever  might  be  the  vessel,  the 
spirit  of  the  woman ;  as  the  upper  nobility  of  our  brood  are 
enabled  to  do  in  a  crisis  mixed  of  moral  aversion  and  sis- 
terly sympathy,  when  nature  cries  to  them,  and  the  scales 
of  convention,  the  mud-spots  of  accident,  even  naughtiness, 
even  wickedness,  all  misfortune's  issue,  if  we  but  see  the 
one  look  upward,  fall  away.  Reason  is  not  excluded  from 
these  blind  throbs  of  a  blood  that  strikes  to  right  the  doings 
of  the  Fates,     Nesta  did  not  err  in  her  divination  of  the 


ONE   OF   THE   SHADOWS   OF   THE  WOKLD  289 

good  and  the  bad  incarnate  beside  her,  though,  both  good 
and  bad  were  behind  a  curtain;  the  latter  sparing  her 
delicate  senses,  appealing  to  chivalry,  to  the  simply  femi- 
nine claim  on  her.  Keason,  acting  in  her  heart  as  a  tongue 
of  the  flames  of  the  forge  where  we  all  are  wrought,  told 
her  surely  that  the  good  predominated.  She  had  the  heart 
which  is  at  our  primal  fires  when  nature  speaks. 

She  gave  the  promise  to  call  on  Mrs.  Marsett  and  sing 
to  her. 

"  An  afternoon  ?  Oh !  what  afternoon  ?  '^  she  was  asked, 
and  she  said:  "This  afternoon,  if  you  like." 

So  it  was  agreed:  Mrs.  Marsett  acted  violently  the  thrill 
of  delight  she  felt  in  the  prospect. 

The  ladies  Dorothea  and  Virginia  consulted,  and  pro- 
nounced the  name  of  Marsett  to  be  a  reputable  County 
name.  "  There  was  a  Leicestershire  baronet  of  the  name 
of  Marsett."  They  arranged  to  send  their  button-blazing 
boy  at  Nesta's  heels.  Mrs.  Marsett  resided  in  a  side-street 
not  very  distant  from  the  featureless  but  washed  and 
orderly  terrace  of  the  glassy  stare  at  sea. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

SHOWS  ONE  OP  THE  SHADOWS  OF  THE  WORLD  CROSSING 

A  virgin's  mind 

Nesta  and  her  maid  were  brought  back  safely  through 
the  dusk  by  their  constellation  of  a  boy,  to  whom  the 
provident  ladies  had  entrusted  her.  They  could  not  but 
note  how  short  her  syllables  were.  Her  face  was  only 
partly  seen.  They  had  returned  refreshed  from  their 
drive  on  the  populous  and  orderly  parade  —  so  fair  a  pat- 
tern of  their  England  !  —  after  discoursing  of  "  the  dear 
child,"  approving  her  manners,  instancing  proofs  of  her 
intelligence,  nay,  her  possession  of  "character."  They 
did  so,  notwithstanding  that  these  admissions  were  worse 
than  their  growing  love  for  the  girl,  to  confound  estab- 
lished ideas.     And  now,  in  thoughtfulness  on  her  behalf, 

19 


290  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUEEORS 

Dorothea  said,  "  We  have  considered,  Nesta,  that  you  may 
be  lonely ;  and  if  it  is  your  wish,  we  will  leave  our  card  on 
your  new  acquaintance."  Nesta  took  her  hand  and  kissed 
it;  she  declined,  saying,  "No,"  without  voice. 

They  had  two  surprises  at  the  dinner-hour.  One  was 
the  card  of  Dartrey  Fenellan,  naming  an  early  time  next 
day  for  his  visit;  and  the  other  was  the  appearance  of  the 
Eev.  Stuart  Rem,  a  welcome  guest.  He  had  come  to  meet 
his  Bishop. 

He  had  come  also  with  serious  information  for  the 
ladies,  regarding  the  Eev.  Abram  Posterley.  No  sooner 
was  this  out  of  his  mouth  than  both  ladies  exclaimed: 
"  Again  !  "  So  serious  was  it,  that  there  had  been  a  con- 
sultation at  the  Wells;  Mr.  Posterley's  friend,  the  Eev. 
Septimus  Barmby,  and  his  own  friend,  the  Eev.  Grose- 
man  Buttermore,  had  journeyed  from  London  to  sit  upon 
the  case:  and,  "One  hoped,"  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  said,  "poor 
Posterley  would  be  restored  to  the  senses  he  periodically 
abandoned."  He  laid  a  hand  on  Tasso's  curls,  and  with- 
drew it  at  a  menace  of  teeth.  Tasso  would  submit  to 
rough,  caresses  from  Mr.  Posterley;  he  would  not  allow 
Mr.  Stuart  Eem  to  touch  him.  Why  was  that?  Perhaps 
for  the  reason  of  Mr.  Posterley's  being  so  emotional  as 
perpetually  to  fall  a  victim  to  some  bright  glance  and 
require  the  rescue  of  his  friends ;  the  slave  of  woman  had 
a  magnet  for  animals ! 

Dorothea  and  Virginia  were  drawn  to  compassionate  sen- 
timents, in  spite  of  the  provokeing  recurrence  of  Mr. 
Posterley 's  malady.  He  had  not  an  income  to  support 
a  wife.  Always  was  this  unfortunate  gentleman  entan- 
gling himself  in  a  passion  for  maid  or  widow  of  the  Wells : 
and  it  was  desperate,  a  fever.  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  charitably 
remarked  on  his  taking  it  so  severely  because  of  his  very 
scrupulous  good  conduct.  They  pardoned  a  little  wound 
to  their  delicacy,  and  asked:  "On  this  occasion?"  Mr. 
Stuart  Eem  named  a  linendraper's  establishment  near  the 
pantiles,  where  a  fair  young  woman  served.  "And  her 
reputation?"  That  was  an  article  less  presentable 
through  plate-glass,  it  seemed:  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  drew  a 
prolonged  breath  into  his  nose. 

*•  It  is  most  melancholy  !  "  they  said'in  unison.    "  Nothing 


ONE  OF   THE   SHADOWS   OF   THE  WORLD  291 

positive,"  said  he.  ^'  But  the  suspicion  of  a  shadow,  Mr. 
Stuart  Kern  !  You  will  not  permit  it  ?  "  He  stated,  that 
his  friend  Buttermore  might  have  influence.  Dorothea  said : 
''  When  I  think  of  Mr.  Posterley's  addiction  to  ceremonial 
observances,  and  to  matrimony,  I  cannot  but  think  of  a 
sentence  that  fell  from  Mr.  Durance  one  day,  with  reference 
to  that  division  of  our  Church :  he  called  it :  — you  frown  ! 
and  I  would  only  quote  Mr.  Durance  to  you  in  support  of 
your  purer  form,  as  we  hold  it  to  be  :  —  with  the  candles,  the 
vestments.  Confession,  alas  !  he  called  it,  *  Eome  and  a 
wife.'" 

Mr.  Stuart  Eem  nodded  an  enforced  assent :  he  testily 
dismissed  mention  of  Mr.  Durance,  and  resumed  on  Mr. 
Posterley. 

The  good  ladies  now,  with  some  of  their  curiosity  ap- 
peased, considerately  signified  to  him,  that  a  young  maiden 
was  present. 

The  young  maiden  had  in  heart  stuff  to  render  such  small 
gossip  a  hum  of  summer  midges.  She  did  not  imagine  the 
dialogue  concerned  her  in  any  way.  She  noticed  Mr.  Stuart 
Rem's  attentive  scrutiny  of  her  from  time  to  time.  She 
had  no  sensitiveness,  hardly  a  mind  for  things  about  her. 
To-morrow  she  was  to  see  Captain  Dartrey.  She  dwelt  on 
that  prospect,  for  an  escape  from  the  meshes  of  a  painful 
hour  —  the  most  woeful  of  the  hours  she  had  yet  known  — 
passed  with  Judith  Marsett  ;  which  dragged  her  soul  through 
a  weltering  of  the  deeps,  tossed  her  over  and  over,  still  did 
it  with  her  ideas.  It  shocked  her  nevertheless  to  perceive 
how  much  of  the  world's  flayed  life  and  harsh  anatomy  she 
had  apprehended,  and  so  coldly,  previous  to  Mrs.  Marsett's 
lift  of  the  veil  in  her  story  of  herself  :  a  skipping  revelation, 
terrible  enough  to  the  girl ;  whose  comparison  of  the 
previously  suspected  things  with  the  things  now  revealed 
imposed  the  thought  of  her  having  been  both  a  precocious 
and  a  callous  young  woman:  a  kind  of  "Delphica  without 
the  erudition,"  her  mind  phrased  it  airily  over  her  chagrin. 
—  And  the  silence  of  Dudley  proved  him  to  have  discovered 
his  error  in  choosing  such  a  person:  he  was  wise,  and  she 
thanked  him.  She  had  an  envy  of  the  ignorant-innocents 
adored  by  the  young  man  she  cordially  thanked  for  quitting 
"hex.    She  admired  the  white  coat  of  armour  they  wore, 


292  ONE   OF   OTJR   CONQUERORS 

whether  bestowed  on  them  by  their  constitution  or  by 
prudence.  For  while  combating  mankind  now  on  Judith 
Marsett's  behalf,  personally  she  ran  like  a  hare  from  the 
mere  breath  of  an  association  with  the  very  minor  sort  of 
similar  charges ;  ardently  she  desired  the  esteem  of  mankind  ; 
she  was  at  moments  abject.  But  had  she  actually  been 
aware  of  the  facts  now  known  ? 

Those  wits  of  the  virgin  young,  quickened  to  shrewdness 
by  their  budding  senses — and  however  vividly — require 
enlightenment  of  the  audible  and  visible  before  their  sterner 
feelings  can  be  heated  to  break  them  away  from  a  blushful 
dread  and  force  the  mind  to  know.  As  much  as  the  wilfully 
or  naturally  blunted,  the  intelligently  honest  have  to  learn 
by  touch  :  only,  their  understandings  cannot  meanwhile  be  so 
wholly  obtuse  as  our  society's  matron,  acting  to  please  the 
tastes  of  the  civilized  man  —  a  creature  that  is  not  clean- 
washed  of  the  Turk  in  him  —  barbarously  exacts.  The  signor 
aforesaid  is  puzzled  to  read  the  woman,  who  is  after  all  in 
his  language ;  but  when  it  comes  to  reading  the  maiden,  she 
appears  as  a  phosphorescent  hieroglyph  to  some  speculative 
Egyptologer ;  and  he  insists  upon  distinct  lines  and  char- 
acters ;  no  variations,  if  he  is  to  have  sense  of  surety. 
Many  a  young  girl  is  misread  by  the  amount  she  seems  to 
know  of  our  construction,  history,  and  dealings,  when  it  is 
not  more  than  her  sincere  ripeness  of  nature,  that  has 
gathered  the  facts  of  life  profuse  about  her,  and  prompts 
her  through  one  or  other  of  the  instincts,  often  vanity,  to 
show  them  to  be  not  entirely  strange  to  her ;  or  haply  her 
filly  nature  is  having  a  fling  at  the  social  harness  of  hypoc- 
risy. If  you  (it  is  usually  through  the  length  of  ears  of 
your  Novelist  that  the  privilege  is  yours)  have  overheard 
queer  communications  passing  between  girls  —  and  you  must 
act  the  traitor  eavesdropper  or  Achilles  masquerader  to  over- 
hear so  clearly  —  these,  be  assured,  are  not  specially  the 
signs  of  their  corruptness.  Even  the  exceptionally  cynical 
are  chiefly  to  be  accused  of  bad  manners.  Your  Moralist  is 
a  myopic  preacher,  when  he  stamps  infamy  on  them,  or  on 
our  later  generation,  for  the  kick  they  have  at  grandmother 
decorum,  because  you  do  not  or  cannot  conceal  from  them 
the  grinning  skeleton  behind  it. 

Nesta  once  had  dreams  of  her  being  loved :  and  she  was 


ONE  OF  THE  SHADOWS  OF  THE  WORLD    29^ 

to  love  in  return  for  a  love  that  excused  her  for  loving  double, 
treble ;  as  not  her  lover  could  love,  she  thought  with  grate- 
ful pride  in  the  treasure  she  was  to  pour  out  at  his  feet ;  as 
only  one  or  two  (and  they  were  women)  in  the  world  had 
ever  loved.  Her  notion  of  the  passion  was  parasitic  :  man 
the  tree,  woman  the  bine  ;  but  the  bine  was  flame  to  enwind 
and  to  soar,  serpent  to  defend,  immortal  flowers  to  crown. 
The  choice  her  parents  had  made  for  her  in  Dudley,  behind 
the  mystery  she  had  scent  of,  nipped  her  dream,  and  pre- 
pared her  to  meet,  as  it  were,  the  fireside  of  a  November  day 
instead  of  springing  up  and  into  the  dawn^s  blue  of  full  sum- 
mer with  swallows  on  wing.  Her  station  in  exile  at  the 
Wells  of  the  weariful  rich,  under  the  weight  of  the  sullen 
secret,  unenlivened  by  Dudley's  courtship,  subdued  her  to 
the  world's  decrees;  phrased  thus:  ^' I  am  not  to  be  a 
heroine.''  The  one  golden  edge  to  the  view  was,  that  she 
would  greatly  please  her  father. 

Her  dream  of  a  love  was  put  away  like  a  botanist's  pressed 
weed.  But  after  hearing  Judith  Marsett's  wild  sobs,  it  had 
no  place  in  her  cherishing.  For,  above  all,  the  unhappy 
woman  protested  love  to  have  been  the  cause  of  her  misery. 
She  moaned  of  "  her  Ned ; "  of  his  goodness,  his  deceitf ul- 
ness,  her  trustfulness ;  his  pride  and  the  vileness  of  his 
friends ;  her  longsuffering  and  her  break  down  of  patience. 
It  was  done  for  the  proof  of  her  unworthiness  of  Nesta's 
friendship:  that  she  might  be  renounced,  and  embraced. 
She  told  the  pathetic  half  of  her  story,  to  suit  the  gentle 
ear,  whose  critical  keenness  was  lost  in  compassion.  How 
deep  the  compassion,  mixed  with  the  girl's  native  respect 
for  the  evil-fortuned,  may  be  judged  by  her  inaccessibility 
to  a  vulgar  tang  that  she  was  aware  of  in  the  deluge  of  the 
torrent,  where  Innocence  and  Ned  and  Love  and  a  proud 
Family  and  that  beast  Worrell  rolled  together  in  leaping 
and  shifting  involutions. 

A  darkness  of  thunder  was  on  the  girl.  Although  she 
was  not  one  to  shrink  beneath  it  like  the  small  bird  of  the 
woods,  she  had  to  say  within  herself  many  times,  "  I  shall 
see  Captain  Dartrey  to-morrow,"  for  a  recovery  and  a 
nerving.  And  with  her  thought  of  him,  her  tooth  was  at 
her  underlip,  she  struggled  abashed,  in  hesitation  over 
men's  views  of  her  sex,  and  how  to  bring  a  frank  mind  to 


294  ONE  OP  OUK   CONQXJEROES 

meet  him;  to  be  sure  of  his  not  at  heart  despising;  until 
his  character  swam  defined  and  bright  across  her  scope. 
"He  is  good  to  women."  Fragments  of  conversation, 
principally  her  father's,  had  pictured  Captain  Dartrey  to 
her  most  manfully  tolerant  toward  a  frivolous  wife. 

He  came  early  in  the  morning,  instantly  after  breakfast. 

Not  two  minutes  had  passed  before  she  was  at  home 
with  him.  His  words,  his  looks,  revived  her  spirit  of 
romance,  gave  her  the  very  landscapes,  and  new  ones. 
Yes,  he  was  her  hero.  But  his  manner  made  him  also  an 
adored  big  brother,  stamped  splendid  by  the  perils  of  life. 
He  sat  square,  as  if  alert  to  rise,  with  an  elbow  on  a  knee, 
and  the  readiest  turn  of  head  to  speakers,  the  promptest  of 
answers,  eyes  that  were  a  brighter  accent  to  the  mouth,  so 
vividly  did  look  accompany  tone.  He  rallied  her,  chatted 
and  laughed ;  pleased  the  ladies  by  laughing  at  Colney 
Durance,  and  inspired  her  with  happiness  when  he  spoke 
of  England  :  —  that  "  One  has  to  be  in  exile  awhile,  to  see 
the  place  she  takes." 

"  Oh,  Captain  Dartrey,  I  do  like  to  hear  you  say  so,"  she 
cried ;  his  voice  was  reassuring  also  in  other  directions :  it 
rang  of  true  man. 

He  volunteered,  however,  a  sad  admission,  that  England 
had  certainly  lost  something  of  the  great  nation's  proper 
conception  of  Eorce :  the  meaning  of  it,  virtue  of  it,  and 
need  for  it.  "  She  bleats  for  a  lesson,  and  will  get  her 
lesson." 

But  if  we  have  Captain  Dartrey,  we  shall  come  through  I 
So  said  the  sparkle  of  Nesta's  eyes. 

"  She  is  very  like  her  father,'*  he  said  to  the  ladies. 

"We  think  so,"  they  remarked. 

'•  There 's  the  mother  too,"  said  he ;  and  Nesta  saw  that 
the  ladies  shadowed. 

They  retired.  Then  she  begged  him  to  "  tell  her  of  her 
own  dear  mother."  The  news  gave  comfort,  except  for 
the  suspicion,  that  the  dear  mother  was  being  worn  by 
her  entertaining  so  largely.  "Papa  is  to  blame,"  said 
Nesta. 

"A  momentary  strain.  Your  father  has  an  idea  of 
Parliament;  one  of  the  London  Boroughs." 

"  And  I,  Captain  Dartrey,  when  do  I  go  back  to  them  ?  " 


ONE  OF  THE  SHADOWS  OF  THE  WORLD    295 

"  Your  mother  comes  down  to  consult  with  you.  And 
now,  do  we  ride  together  ?  " 

"You  are  free?" 

"  My  uncle,  Lord  Clan,  lets  me  out." 

"To-day?'' 

"Why,  yes!" 

"This  morning?" 

"  In  an  hour's  time." 

"  I  will  be  ready." 

Nesta  sent  a  line  of  excuse  to  Mrs.  Marsett,  throwing  in 
a  fervent  adjective  for  balm. 

That  fair  person  rode  out  with  the  troop  under  conduct 
of  the  hallowing  squire  of  the  stables,  and  passed  by  Nesta 
on  horseback  beside  Dartrey  Fenellan  at  the  steps  of  a 
huge  hotel ;  issuing  from  which,  pretty  Mrs.  Blathenoy  was 
about  to  mount.  Mrs.  Marsett  looked  ahead  and  coloured, 
but  she  could  not  restrain  one  look  at  Nesta,  that  embraced 
her  cavalier.  Nesta  waved  hand  to  her,  and  nodded.  Mrs. 
Marsett  withdrew  her  eyes ;  her  doing  so,  silent  though  it 
was,  resembled  the  drag  back  to  sea  of  the  shingle-wave 
below  her,  such  a  screaming  of  tattle  she  heard  in  the  ques- 
tions discernible  through  the  attitude  of  the  cavalier  and  of 
the  lady,  who  paused  to  stare,  before  the  leap  up  in  the 
saddle.  '  Who  is  she  ?  —  what  is  she  ?  —  how  did  you  know 
her  ?  —  where  does  she  come  from  ?  —  wears  her  hat  on  her 
brows  !  —  huge  gauntlets  out  of  style !  —  shady  !  shady ! 
shady!'  And  as  always  during  her  nervous  tumults,  the 
name  of  Worrell  made  diapason  of  that  execrable  uproar. 
Her  hat  on  her  brows  had  an  air  of  dash,  defying  a  world  it 
could  win,  as  Ned  well  knew.  But  she  scanned  her  gaunt- 
lets disapprovingly.  This  town,  we  are  glad  to  think,  has 
a  bright  repute  for  glove-shops.  And  Mrs.  Marsett  could 
applaud  herself  for  sparing  Ned's  money  ;  she  had  mended 
her  gloves,  if  they  were  in  the  fashion.  —  But  how  does  the 
money  come  ?  Hark  at  that  lady  and  that  gentleman  ques- 
tioning Miss  Eadnor  of  everything,  everything  in  the  world 
about  her  !  Not  a  word  do  they  get  from  Miss  Kadnor. 
And  it  makes  them  the  more  inquisitive.  Idle  rich  people, 
comfortably  fenced  round,  are  so  inquisitive  !  And  Mrs. 
Marsett,  loving  Nesta  for  the  notice  of  her,  maddened  by  the 
sting  of  tongues  it  was  causing,  heard  the  wash  of  the 


266  OKE  OS'  OTJR  CONQIJEEOES 

beach,  without  consciousness  of  analogies,  but  with  a  body- 
ready  to  jump  out  of  skin,  out  of  life,  in  desperation  at  the 
sound. 

She  was  all  impulse ;  a  shifty  piece  of  unmercenary  strata- 
gem occasionally  directing  it.  Arrived  at  her  lodgings,  she 
wrote  to  Nesta :  "  I  entreat  you  not  to  notice  me,  if  you  pass 
me  on  the  road  again.  Let  me  drop,  never  mind  how  low 
I  go.  I  was  born  to  be  wretched.  A  line  from  you,  just  a 
line  now  and  then,  only  to  show  me  I  am  not  forgotten.  I 
have  had  a  beautiful  dream.  I  am  not  bad  in  reality ;  I 
love  goodness,  I  know.  I  cling  to  the  thought  of  you,  as 
my  rescue,  I  declare.  Please,  let  me  hear :  if  it 's  not  more 
than  '  good  day '  and  your  initials  on  a  post-card." 

The  letter  brought  Nesta  in  person  to  her. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

THE  BURDEN   UPON  NESTA 


Could  there  be  confidences  on  the  subject  of  Mrs.  Mar- 
sett  with  Captain  Dartrey  ?  —  Nesta  timidly  questioned  her 
heart :  she  knocked  at  an  iron  door  shut  upon  a  thing  alive. 
The  very  asking  froze  her,  almost  to  stopping  her  throbs  of 
pity  for  the  woman.  With  Captain  Dartrey,  if  with  any 
one ;  but  with  no  one.  Not  with  her  mother  even.  Toward 
her  mother,  she  felt  guilty  of  knowing.  Her  mother  had  a 
horror  of  that  curtain.  Nesta  had  seen  it,  and  had  taken 
her  impressions ;  she,  too,  shrank  from  it ;  the  more  when 
impelled  to  draw  near  it.  Louise  de  Seilles  would  have 
been  another  self ;  Louise  was  away ;  when  to  return,  the 
dear  friend  could  not  state.  Speaking  in  her  ear,  w^ould 
have  been  possible;  the  theme  precluded  writing. 

It  was  ponderous  combustible  new  knowledge  of  life  for 
a  girl  to  hold  unaided.  In  the  presence  of  the  simple  silvery 
ladies  Dorothea  and  Virginia,  she  had  qualms,  as  if  she 
were  breaking  out  in  spots  before  them.  The  ladies  fancied, 
that  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  had  hinted  to  them  oddly  of  the  girl ; 
and  that  he  might  have  meant,  she  appeared  a  little  too 


THE  BURDEN  UPON  NESTA  297 

cognizant  of  poor  Mr.  Abram  Posterley's  malady  —  as  girls, 
in  these  terrible  days,  only  too  frequently,  too  brazenly,  are. 
They  discoursed  to  her  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  manners, 
nay,  the  morals  of  young  Englishwomen,  once  patterns! 
They  sketched  the  young  English  gentlewoman  of  their 
time ;  indeed  a  beauty ;  with  round  red  cheeks,  and  rounded 
open  eyes,  and  a  demure  shut  mouth,  a  puppet's  divine 
ignorance;  inoffensive  in  the  highest  degree,  rightly  wor- 
shipped. They  were  earnest,  and  Nesta  struck  at  herself. 
She  wished  to  be  as  they  had  been,  reserving  her  painful 
independence. 

They  were  good:  they  were  the  ideal  women  of  our 
country ;  which  demands  if  it  be  but  the  semblance  of  the 
sureness  of  stationary  excellence ;  such  as  we  have  in  Sevres 
and  Dresden,  polished  bright  and  smooth  as  ever  by  the 
morning's  flick  of  a  duster ;  perhaps  in  danger  of  accidents 
—  accidents  must  be  kept  away;  but  enviable,  admirable,  we 
think,  when  we  are  not  thinking  of  seed  sown  or  help  given 
to  the  generations  to  follow.  Nesta  both  envied  and  ad- 
mired ;  she  revered  them  ;  yet  her  sharp  intelligence,  larger 
in  the  extended  boundary  of  thought  coming  of  strange 
crimson-lighted  new  knowledge,  discerned  in  a  dimness 
what  blest  conditions  had  fixed  them  on  their  beautiful 
barren  eminence.  Without  challengeing  it,  she  had  a  re- 
bellious rush  of  sympathy  for  our  evil-fortuned  of  the 
world ;  the  creatures  in  the  battle,  the  wounded,  trodden, 
mud-stained :  and  it  alarmed  her  lest  she  should  be  at  heart 
one  out  of  the  fold. 

She  had  the  sympathy,  nevertheless,  and  renewing  and 
increasing  with  the  pulsations  of  a  compassion  that  she 
took  for  her  reflective  survey.  The  next  time  she  saw 
Dartrey  Fenellan,  she  was  assured  of  him,  as  being  the 
man  who  might  be  spoken  to ;  and  by  a  woman :  though 
not  by  a  girl ;  not  spoken  to  by  her.  The  throb  of  the 
impulse  precipitating  speech  subsided  to  a  dumb  yearning. 
He  noticed  her  look :  he  was  unaware  of  the  human  sun  in 
the  girPs  eyes  taking  an  image  of  him  for  permanent  habi- 
tation in  her  breast.  That  face  of  his,  so  clearly  lined, 
quick,  firm,  with  the  blue  smile  on  it  like  the  gleam  of  a 
sword  coming  out  of  sheath,  did  not  mean  hardness,  she 
could  have  vowed.     0  that  some  woman,  other  than  the 


298  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

unhappy  woman  herself,  would  speak  the  words  denied  to 
a  girl !  He  was  the  man  who  would  hearken  and  help. 
Essential  immediate  help  was  to  be  given  besides  the  noble 
benevolence  of  mind.  Kovel  ideas  of  manliness  and  the 
world's  need  for  it  were  printed  on  her  understanding. 
Eor  what  could  women  do  in  aid  of  a  good  cause !  She 
fawned :  she  deemed  herself  very  despicably  her  hero's 
inferior.  The  thought  of  him  enclosed  her.  In  a  prison, 
the  gaoler  is  a  demi-God  —  hued  bright  or  black,  as  it  may 
be ;  and,  by  the  present  arrangement  between  the  sexes,  she, 
whom  the  world  allowed  not  to  have  an  intimation  from 
eye  or  ear,  or  from  nature's  blood-ripeness  in  commune  with 
them,  of  certain  matters,  which  it  suffers  to  be  notorious, 
necessarily  directed  her  appeal  almost  in  worship  to  the 
man,  who  was  the  one  man  endowed  to  relieve,  and  who 
locked  her  mouth  for  shame. 

Thus  was  she,  too,  being  put  into  her  woman's  harness  of 
the  bit  and  the  blinkers,  and  taught  to  know  herself  for  the 
weak  thing,  the  gentle  parasite,  which  the  fiction  of  our 
civilization  expects  her,  caressingly  and  contemptuously,  to 
become  in  the  active,  while  it  is  exacted  of  her  —  0  Comedy 
of  Clowns !  —  that  in  the  passive  she  be  a  rock-fortress  im^ 
pregnable,  not  to  speak  of  magically  encircled.  She  must 
also  have  her  feelings;  she  must  not  be  an  unnatural 
creature.  And  she  must  have  a  sufficient  intelligence  ;  for 
her  stupidity  does  not  flatter  the  possessing  man.  It  is  not 
an  organic  growth  that  he  desires  in  his  mate,  but  a  happy 
composition.     You  see  the  world  which  comes  of  the  pair. 

This  burning  Nesta,  Victor's  daughter,  tempered  by 
Nataly's  milder  blood,  was  a  girl  in  whom  the  hard  shocks 
of  the  knowledge  of  life,  perforce  of  the  hardness  upon  pure 
metal,  left  a  strengthening  for  generous  imagination.  She 
did  not  sit  to  brood  on  her  injured  senses  or  set  them  through 
speculation  touching  heat;  they  were  taken  up  and  con- 
sumed by  the  fire  of  her  mind.  Nor  had  she  leisure  for  the 
abhorrences,  in  a  heart  all  flowing  to  give  aid,  and  uplift  and 
restore.  Self  was  as  urgent  in  her  as  in  most  of  the  young ; 
but  the  gift  of  humour,  which  had  previously  diverted  it, 
was  now  the  quick  feeling  for  her  sisterhood,  through  the 
one  piteous  example  she  knew ;  and  broadening  it,  through 
her  insurgent  abasement  on  their  behalf,  which  was  her 


THE  BXTRDEN  UPON  NESTA  299 

scourged  pride  of  sex.  She  but  faintly  thought  of  blainiug 
the  men  whom  her  soul  besought  for  justice,  for  common 
kindness,  to  women.  There  was  the  danger,  that  her 
aroused  young  ignorance  would  charge  the  whole  of  the 
misery  about  and  abroad  upon  the  stronger  of  those  two : 
and  another  danger,  that  the  vision  of  the  facts  below  the 
surface  would  discolour  and  disorder  her  views  of  existence. 
But  she  loved,  she  sprang  to,  the  lighted  world;  and  she 
had  figures  of  male  friends,  to  which  to  cling;  and  they 
helped  in  animating  glorious  historical  figures  on  the  world's 
library-shelves  or  under  yet  palpitating  earth.  Promise  of 
a  steady  balance  of  her  nature,  too,  was  shown  in  the  absence 
of  any  irritable  urgency  to  be  doing,  when  her  bosom  bled 
to  help.  Beyond  the  resolve,  that  she  would  not  abandon 
the  woman  who  had  made  confession  to  her,  she  formed  no 
conscious  resolutions.  Far  ahead  down  her  journey  of  the 
years  to  come,  she  did  see  mufiied  things  she  might  hope 
and  would  strive  to  do.  They  were  chrysalis  shapes. 
Above  all,  she  flew  her  blind  quickened  heart  on  the  wings 
of  an  imaginative  force ;  and  those  of  the  young  who  can 
do  that,  are  in  their  blood  incorruptible  by  dark  knowledge, 
irradiated  under  darkness  in  the  mind.  Let  but  the  throb 
be  kept  for  others.  That  is  the  one  secret,  for  redemption, 
if  not  for  preservation. 

Victor  descended  on  his  marine  London  to  embrace  his 
girl,  full  of  regrets  at  Fredi's  absence  from  the  great  whirl 
"  overhead,"  as  places  of  multitudinous  assembly,  where  he 
shone,  always  appeared  to  him.  But  it  was  not  to  last  long; 
she  would  soon  be  on  the  surface  again!  At  the  first  clasp 
of  her,  he  chirped  some  bars  of  her  song.  He  challenged 
her  to  duet  before  the  good  ladies,  and  she  kindled,  she  was 
caught  up  by  his  gaiety,  wondering  at  herself ;  faintly  aware 
of  her  not  being  spontaneous.  And  she  made  her  father 
laugh,  just  in  the  old  way;  and  looked  at  herself  in  his 
laughter,  with  the  thought  that  she  could  not  have  become 
so  changed ;  by  which  the  girl  was  helped  to  jump  to  her 
humour.  Victor  turned  his  full  front  to  Dorothea  and  Vir- 
ginia, one  sunny  beam  of  delight :  and  although  it  was  Mr. 
Stuart  Kem  who  was  naughty  Nesta's  victim,  and  although 
it  seemed  a  trespass  on  her  part  to  speak  in  such  a  manner 
of  a  clerical  gentleman,  they  were  seized ;  they  were  the 


SOO  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

opposite  partners  of  a  laughing  quadrille,  lasting  till  they 
were  tired  out. 

Victor  had  asked  his  girl,  if  she  sang  on  a  Sunday.  The 
ladies  remembered,  that  she  had  put  the  question  for  per- 
mission to  Mr.  Stuart  Rem,  who  was  opposed  to  secular 
singing. 

"  And  what  did  he  say? ''  said  Victor. 

Nesta  shook  head :  ^'  It  was  not  what  he  said,  papa ;  it 
was  his  look.  His  duty  compelled  him,  though  he  loves 
music.  He  had  the  look  of  a  Patriarch  putting  his  hand- 
maiden away  into  the  desert." 

Dorothea  and  Virginia,  in  spite  of  protests  within, 
laughed  to  streams.  They  recollected  the  look;  she  had 
given  the  portrait  of  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  in  the  act  of  repudiat- 
ing secular  song. 

Victor  conjured  up  a  day  when  this  darling  Fredi,  a  child, 
stood  before  a  famous  picture  in  the  Brera,  at  Milan :  when 
he  and  her  mother  noticed  the  child's  very  studious  grave- 
ness;  and  they  had  talked  of  it;  he  remarking  that  she 
disapproved  of  the  Patriarch;  and  Nataly,  that  she  was 
taken  with  Hagar's  face. 

He  seemed  surprised  at  her  not  having  heard  from 
Dudley. 

"How  is  that?"  said  he. 

"  Most  probably  because  he  has  not  written,  papa." 

He  paused  after  the  cool  reply.  She  had  no  mournful 
gaze  at  all ;  but  in  the  depths  of  the  clear  eyes  he  knew  so 
well,  there  was  a  coil  of  something  animate,  whatever  it 
might  be.    And  twice  she  drew  a  heavy  breath. 

He  mentioned  it  in  London.  Nataly  telegraphed  at  night 
for  her  girl  to  meet  her  next  day  at  Dartrey^s  hotel. 

Their  meeting  was  incomprehensibly  joyless  to  the  hearts 
of  each,  though  it  was  desired,  and  had  long  been  desired, 
and  mother  was  mother,  daughter  daughter,  without  dimi- 
nution of  love  between  them.  They  held  hands,  they  kissed 
and  clasped,  they  showered  their  tender  phrases  with  full 
warm  truth,  and  looked  into  eyes  and  surely  saw  one  another. 
But  the  heart  of  each  was  in  a  battle  of  its  own,  taking 
wounds  or  crying  for  supports.  Whether  to  speak  to  her 
girl  at  once,  despite  the  now  vehement  contrary  counsel  of 
Victor,  was  Nataly's  deliberation,  under  the  thought  of  the 


THE  BURDEN  UPON  NESTA  301 

young  creature's  perplexity  in  not  seeing  her  at  the  house 
of  the  Duvidney  ladies:  while  Nesta  conjured  in  a  flash  the 
past  impressions  of  her  mother's  shrinking  distaste  from 
any  such  hectic  themes  as  this  which  burdened  and  absorbed 
her  ;  and  she  was  almost  joining  to  it^  through  sympathy 
with  any  thought  or  feeling  of  one  in  whom  she  had  such 
pride ;  she  had  the  shudder  of  revulsion.  Further,  ]^ataly 
put  on  rather  cravenly  an  air  of  distress,  or  she  half  design- 
ingly permitted  her  trouble  to  be  seen,  by  way  of  affecting 
her  girl's  recollection  when  the  confession  was  to  come,  that 
Nesta  might  then  understand  her  to  have  been  restrained 
from  speaking,  not  evasive  of  her  duty.  The  look  was  inter- 
preted by  Nesta  as  belonging  to  the  social  annoyances  dating, 
in  her  calendar,  from  Creckholt,  apprehensively  dreaded  at 
Lakelands.  She  hinted  asking,  and  her  mother  nodded; 
not  untruthfully;  but  she  put  on  a  briskness  after  the  nod; 
and  a  doubt  was  driven  into  Nesta's  bosom. 

Her  dear  Skepsey  was  coming  down  to  her  for  a  holiday, 
she  was  glad  to  hear.  Of  Dudley,  there  was  no  word. 
Nataly  shunned  his  name,  with  a  superstitious  dread  lest 
any  mention  of  him  should  renew  pretensions  that  she 
hoped,  and  now  supposed,  were  quite  withdrawn.  So  she 
had  told  poor  Mr.  Barmby  only  yesterday,  at  his  humble 
request  to  know.  He  had  seen  Dudley  on  the  pantiles, 
walking  with  a  young  lady,  he  said.  And  *'  he  feared,"  he 
said;  using  a  pardonable  commonplace  of  deceit.  Her 
compassion  accounted  for  the  "  fear  "  which  was  the  wish, 
and  caused  her  not  to  think  it  particularly  strange,  that  he 
should  imagine  Dudley  to  have  quitted  the  field.  Now  that 
a  disengaged  Dartrey  Fenellan  was  at  hand,  poor  Mr. 
Barmby  could  have  no  chance. 

Dartrey  came  to  her  room  by  appointment.  She  wanted 
to  see  him  alone,  and  he  informed  her,  that  Mrs.  Blathenoy 
was  in  the  hotel,  and  would  certainly  receive  and  amuse 
Nesta  for  any  length  of  time. 

"  I  will  take  her  up,"  said  Nataly,  and  rose,  and  she  sat 
immediately,  and  fluttered  a  hand  at  her  breast.  She 
laughed  :  "  Perhaps  I  'm  tired  ! " 

Dartrey  took  Nesta. 

He  returned,  saying :  ^'  There 's  a  lift  in  the  hotel.  Do 
the  stairs  affect  you  at  all  ?  " 


302  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUERORS 

She  fenced  his  sharp  look.  "  Laziness,  I  fancy  ;  age  is 
coming  on.     How  is  it  Mrs.  Blathenoy  is  here  ?  " 

"Well!  how?" 

"  Foolish  curiosity  ?  " 

"  I  think  I  have  made  her  of  service.  I  did  not  bring 
the  lady  here.'' 

* '  Of  service  to  whom  ?  " 

"  Why,  to  Victor  ! '' 

"  Has  Victor  commissioned  you  ?  " 

"  You  can  bear  to  hear  it.  Her  husband  knows  the  story. 
He  has  a  grudge  .  .  .  commercial  reasons.  I  fancy  it  is, 
that  Victor  stood  against  his  paper  at  the  table  of  the  Bank. 
Blathenoy  vowed  blow  for  blow.  But  I  think  the  little 
woman  holds  him  in.     She  says  she  does." 

"  Victor  prompted  you  ?  " 

"  It  occurred  as  it  occurred." 

"  She  does  it  for  love  of  us  ?  —  Oh !  I  can't  trifle. 
Dartrey!" 

"Tell  me." 

"  First  you  have  n*t  let  me  know  what  you  think  of  my 
Nesta." 

"She  's  a  dear  good  girl." 

"  Not  so  interesting  to  you  as  a  flighty  little  woman ! " 

"  She  has  a  speck  of  some  sort  on  her  mind." 

Nataly  spied  at  Dudley's  behaviour,  and  said:  "That 
will  wear  away.     Is  Mr.  Blathenoy  much  here  ?  " 

"  As  often  as  he  can  come,  I  believe." 

"That  is?  ..." 

"I  have  seen  him  twice." 

"  His  wife  remains  ?  " 

"  Fixed  here  for  the  season." 

"My  friend!" 

"  No  harm,  no  harm  ! " 

"But  — to  her!" 

"You  have  my  word  of  honour." 

"  Yes  :  and  she  is  doing  you  a  service,  at  your  request ; 
and  you  occasionally  reward  her  with  thanks ;  and  she  sees 
you  are  a  man  of  honour.     Do  you  not  know  women  ?  " 

Dartrey  blew  his  pooh-pooh  on  feminine  suspicions. 
"There's  very  little  left  of  the  Don  Amoroso  in  me. 
Women  don't  worship  stone  figures," 


THE  BUKDEN  UPON  NESTA  303 

"  They  do :  like  the  sea-birds.  And  what  do  you  say  to 
me,  Dartrey  ?  —  I  can  confess  it :  I  am  one  of  them :  I 
love  you.  When  last  you  left  England,  I  kissed  your  hand. 
It  was  because  of  your  manly  heart  in  that  stone  figure. 
I  kept  from  crying :  you  used  to  scorn  us  English  for  the 
♦whimpering  fits'  you  said  we  enjoy  and  must  have  —  in 
books,  if  we  can't  get  them  up  for  ourselves.  I  could  have 
prayed  to  have  you  as  brother  or  son.  I  love  my  Victor 
the  better  for  his  love  of  you.  Oh  !  —  poor  soul !  —  how  he 
is  perverted  since  that  building  of  Lakelands  !  He  cannot 
take  soundings  of  the  things  he  does.  Formerly  he  con- 
fided in  me,  in  all  things :  now  not  one ;  —  I  am  the  chief 
person  to  deceive.  If  only  he  had  waited !  We  are  in  a 
network  of  intrigues  and  schemes,  every  artifice,  lu  London 
—  tempting  one  to  hate  simple  worthy  people,  who  naturally 
have  their  views,  and  see  me  an  impostor,  and  tolerate  me, 
fascinated  by  him  :  —  or  bribed  —  it  has  to  be  said.  There 
are  ways  of  bribeing.  I  trust  he  may  not  have  in  the  end 
to  pay  too  heavily  for  succeeding.  He  seems  a  man  pushed 
by  Destiny;  not  irresponsible,  but  less  responsible  than 
most.  He  is  desperately  tempted  by  his  never  failing. 
Whatever  he  does !  ...  it  is  true  !  And  it  sets  me  think- 
ing of  those  who  have  never  had  an  ailment,  up  to  a  certain 
age,  when  the  killing  blow  comes.  Latterly  I  have  seen 
into  him:  I  never  did  before.  Had  I  been  stronger,  I 
might  have  saved,  or  averted.  .  .  .  But,  you  will  say,  the 
stronger  woman  would  not  have  occupied  my  place.  I  must 
have  been  blind  too.  I  did  not  see,  that  his  nature  shrinks 
from  the  thing  it  calls  up.  He  dreads  the  exposure  he 
courts  —  or  has  to  combat  with  all  his  powers.  It  has  been 
a  revelation  to  me  of  him  —  life  as  well.  Nothing  stops 
him.  Now  it  is  Parliament  —  a  vacant  London  Borough. 
He  counts  on  a  death.  Ah  !  terrible  !  I  have  it  like  a 
snake's  bite  night  and  day." 

Nataly  concluded  :  "  There  :  it  has  done  me  some  good  to 
speak.     I  feel  so  base."     She  breathed  heavily. 

Dartrey  took  her  hand  and  bent  his  lips  to  it.  "  Happy 
the  woman  who  has  not  more  to  speak!  How  long  will 
Nesta  stay  here  ?  " 

"  You  will  watch  over  her,  Dartrey  ?  She  stays  —  her 
father  wishes  — up  to  ...  ah !    We  can  hardly  be  in  such 


304  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

extreme  peril.  He  has  her  doctor,  her  lawyer,  and  her 
butler  —  a  favourite  servant  —  to  check,  and  influence,  her. 
She  —  you  know  who  it  is !  —  does  not,  I  am  now  convinced, 
mean  persecution.  She  was  never  a  mean-minded  woman. 
Oh!  I  could  wish  she  were.  They  say  she  is  going.  Then 
I  am  to  be  made  an  ^honest  woman  of.'  Victor  wants 
Nesta,  now  that  she  is  away,  to  stay  until  .  .  .  You  under- 
stand. He  feels  she  is  safe  from  any  possible  kind  of  harm 
with  those  good  ladies.  And  I  feel  she  is  the  safer  for  hav- 
ing you  near.  Otherwise,  how  I  should  pray  to  have  you 
with  us!  Daily  I  have  to  pass  through,  well,  something 
like  the  ordeal  of  the  red-hot  ploughshares  —  and  without 
the  innocence,  dear  friend  I  But  it 's  best  that  my  girl 
should  not  have  to  be  doing  the  same ;  though  she  would 
have  the  innocence.  But  she  writhes  under  any  shadow 
of  a  blot.  And  for  her  to  learn  the  things  that  are  in  the 
world,  through  her  mother's  history !  —  and  led  to  know 
it  by  the  falling  away  of  friends,  or  say,  acquaintances  ! 
However  ignorant  at  present,  she  learns  from  a  mere 
nothing.  I  dread !  ...  In  a  moment,  she  is  a  blaze  of 
light.  There  have  been  occurrences.  Only  Victor  could 
have  overcome  them  !  I  had  to  think  it  better  for  my  girl, 
that  she  was  absent.  We  are  in  such  a  whirl  up  there! 
So  I  work  round  again  to  ^  how  long  ? '  and  the  picture  of 
myself  counting  the  breaths  of  a  dying  woman.  The  other 
day  I  was  told  I  was  envied ! " 

"  Battle,  battle,  battle ;  —  for  all  of  us,  in  every  position ! " 
said  Dartrey,  sharply,  to  clip  a  softness :  "  except  when 
one  's  attending  on  an  invalid  uncle.  Then  it 's  peace  ; 
rather  like  extinction.  And  I  can't  be  crying  for  the  end 
either.  I  bite  my  moustache  and  tap  foot  on  the  floor,  out 
of  his  hearing;  make  believe  I'm  patient.  Now  I'll  fetch 
Nesta." 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  came  down  with  an  arm  on  Nesta's 
shoulder.  She  held  a  telegram,  and  said  to  Nataly :  "  What 
can  this  mean  ?  It 's  from  my  husband;  he  puts  ^  Jacob  :  * 
my  husband's  Christian  name :  —  so  like  my  husband, 
where  there 's  no  concealment !  There  —  he  says  :  '  Down 
to-night  else  pack  ready  start  to-morrow.'  Can  it  signify, 
affairs  are  bad  with  my  husband  in  the  city  ?  " 

It  had  that  signification  to  Nataly's  understanding.     At 


THE  BURDEN  UPON  NESTA  305 

the  same  time,  the  pretty  little  woman's  absurd  lisping 
repetition  of  "  my  husband "  did  not  seem  without  design 
to  inflict  the  wound  it  caused. 

In  reality,  it  was  not  malicious  ;  it  came  of  the  bewitch- 
ment of  a  silly  tongue  by  her  knowledge  of  the  secret  to  be 
controlled :  and  after  contrasting  her  fortunes  with  Nataly's, 
on  her  way  down-stairs,  she  had  comforted  herself  by  say- 
ing that  at  least  she  had  a  husband.  She  was  not  aware 
that  she  dealt  a  hurt  until  she  had  found  a  small  consola- 
tion in  the  indulgence :  for  Captain  Dartrey  Fenellau 
admired  this  commanding  figure  of  a  woman,  who  could 
not  legally  say  that  which  the  woman  he  admired  less,  if 
at  all,  legally  could  say. 

^^  I  must  leave  you  to  interpret,"   Nataly  remarked. 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  resented  her  unbefitting  queenly  style. 
For  this  reason,  she  abstained  from  an  intended  leading  up 
to  mention  of  the  "  singular-looking  lady  "  seen  riding  with 
Miss  Eadnor  more  than  once ;  and  as  to  whom.  Miss  Eadnor 
(for  one  gives  her  the  name)  had  not  just  now,  when 
questioned,  spoken  very  clearly.  So  the  mother's  alarms 
were  not  raised. 

And  really  it  was  a  pity,  Mrs.  Blathenoy  said  to  Dartrey 
subsequently ;  finding  him  colder  than  before  Mrs.  Kadnor's 
visit ;  it  was  a  pity,  because  a  young  woman  in  Miss  Eadnor's 
position  should  not  by  any  possibility  be  seen  in  association 
with  a  person  of  commonly  doubtful  appearance. 

She  was  denied  the  petulant  satisfaction  of  rousing  the 
championship  bitter  to  her.  Dartrey  would  not  deliver  an 
opinion  on  Miss  Eadnor's  conduct.  He  declined,  moreover, 
to  assist  in  elucidating  the  telegram  by  "  looking  here,"  and 
poring  over  the  lines  beside  a  bloomy  cheek.  He  was  petu- 
lantly whipped  on  the  arm  with  her  glove,  and  pouted  at. 
And  it  was  then  —  and  then  only  or  chiefly  through  Nataly's 
recent  allusion  —  that  the  man  of  honour  had  his  quakings 
in  view  of  the  quagmire,  where  he  was  planted  on  an  exceed- 
ingly narrow  causeway,  not  of  the  firmest.  For  she  was  a 
pretty  little  woman,  one  of  the  prize  gifts  of  the  present 
education  of  women  to  the  men  who  are  for  having  them 
quiescent  domestic  patterns  ;  and  her  artificial  ingenuousness 
or  candid  frivolities  came  to  her  by  nature  to  kindle  the 
nature  of  the  gentleman  on  the  other  bank  of  the  stream, 

20 


306  OKE  or  OUR  conqueroes 

and  witch  Mm  to  the  plunge,  so  greatly  mutually  regretted 
after  taken  :  an  old  duet  to  the  moon. 

Dartrey  escaped  to  the  Club,  where  he  had  a  friend.     The 
friend  was   Colonel  Sudley,    one  of   the   modern  studious 
officers,  not  in  good  esteem  with  the  authorities.     He  had 
not  forgiven  Dartrey  for  the  intemperateness  which  cut  off 
a  brilliant  soldier   from  the  service.     He  was  reduced  to 
acknowledge,  however,  that  there  was  a  sparkling  defence 
for  him  to  reply  with,  in  the  shape  of  a  fortune  gained :  and 
where  we  have  a  Society  forcing  us  to  live  up  to  an  expensive 
level,  very  trying  to  a  soldier's  income,  a  fortune  gained 
will  offer  excuses  for  misconduct  short  of  disloyal  or  illegal. 
They  talked  of  the  state  of  the  Army :  we   are  moving. 
True,  and  at  the  last  Eeview,  the  "  march  past "  was  per- 
formed before  a  mounted  generalissimo  profoundly  asleep, 
head  on  breast.     Our  English  military  "  moving ''  may  now 
be  likened  to  Somnolency  on  Horseback.     <^  Oh,  come,  no 
rancour,"  said  the  colonel ;  ^'  you  know  he 's  a  kind  old  boy 
at  heart ;  nowhere  a  more  affectionate  man  alive  ! " 
"  So  the  sycophants  are  sure  of  posts !  " 
"  Come,  I  say!     He  's  devoted  to  the  Service." 
"Invalid  him,  and  he  shall  have  a  good  epitaph." 
"  He 's  not  so  responsible  as  the  taxpayer." 
"There  you  touch  home.     Mother  Goose  can't  imagine 
the  need  for  defence  until  a  hand's  at  her  feathers." 
"  What  about  her  shrieks  now  and  then  ?  '' 
"  Indigestion  of  a  surfeit  ?  " 

They  were  in  a  laughing  wrangle  when  two  acquaintances 
of  the  colonel's  came  near.  One  of  them  recognized  Dartrey. 
He  changed  a  prickly  subject  to  one  that  is  generally  as 
acceptable  to  the  servants  of  Mars.  His  companion  said : 
"  Who  is  the  girl  out  with  Judith  Marsett  ?  "  He  flavoured 
eulogies  of  the  girl's  good  looks  in  easy  garrison  English. 
She  was  praised  for  sitting  her  horse  well.  One  had  met 
her  on  the  parade,  in  the  afternoon,  walking  with  Mrs. 
Marsett.  Colonel  Sudley  had  seen  them  on  horseback.  He 
remarked  to  Dartrey  :  "  And  by  the  way,  you  're  a  clean 
stretch  ahead  of  us.  I  've  seen  you  go  by  these  windows, 
with  the  young  lady  on  one  side,  and  a  rather  pretty  woman 
on  the  other  too." 

"Nothing  is  unseen  in  this  town  !  "  Dartrey  rejoined. 


THE   SQUIRES   IN  A  CONQUEROR'S   SERVICE       307 

Strolling  to  his  quarters  along  the  breezy  parade  at  night, 
he  proposed  to  himself,  that  he  would  breathe  an  immediate 
caution  to  Nesta.  How  had  she  come  to  know  this  Mrs. 
Marsett  ?  But  he  was  more  seriously  thinking  of  what  Col- 
ney  Durance  called  "  The  Mustard  Plaster  ; "  the  satirist's 
phrase  for  warm  relations  with  a  married  fair  one:  and 
Dartrey,  clear  of  any  design  to  have  it  at  his  breast,  was 
beginning  to  take  intimations  of  pricks  and  burns.  They 
are  an  almost  positive  cure  of  inflammatory  internal  condi- 
tions. They  were  really  hard  on  him,  who  had  none  to  be 
cured. 

The  hour  was  nigh  midnight.  As  he  entered  his  hotel, 
the  porter  ran  off  to  the  desk  in  his  box,  and  brought  him  a 
note,  saying  that  a  lady  had  left  it  at  half-past  nine. —  Left 
it  ?  —  Then  the  lady  could  not  be  the  alarming  lady.  He 
was  relieved.  The  words  of  the  letter  were  cabalistic ; 
these,  beneath  underlined  address :  — 

"  I  beg  you  to  call  on  me,  if  I  do  not  see  you  this  evening. 
It  is  urgent ;  you  will  excuse  me  when  I  explain.  Not  late 
to-morrow.  I  am  sure  you  will  not  fail  to  come.  I  could 
write  what  would  be  certain  to  bring  you.  I  dare  not  trust 
any  names  to  paper." 

The  signature  was,  Judith  Marsett. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

SHOWS     HOW     THE     SQUIRES      IN 

HAVE   AT   TIMES     TO     DO     KNIGHTLY    CONQUEST     OF    THEM- 
SELVES 

By  the  very  earliest  of  the  trains  shot  away  to  light  and 
briny  air  from  London's  November  gloom,  which  knows 
the  morning  through  increase  of  gas  jets,  little  Skepsey  was 
hurried  over  suburban  chimneys,  in  his  friendly  third-class 
carriage ;  where  we  have  reminders  of  ancient  pastoral  times 
peculiar  to  our  country,  as  it  may  chance ;  but  where  a  man 
may  speak  to  his  neighbour  right  off  without  being  deemed 
offensive.     That  is  homely.    A  social  fellow  knitting  closely 


308  ONE  OF  OUK,  CONQUEROES 

to  his  fellows  when  he  meets  them,  enjoys  it,  even  at  the 
cost  of  uncushioned  seats:  he  can,  if  imps  are  in  him, 
merryandrew  as  much  as  he  pleases ;  detested  punctilio  does 
not  reign  there ;  he  can  proselytize  for  the  soul's  welfare ; 
decry  or  uphold  the  national  drink ;  advertize  a  commercial 
Firm  deriving  prosperity  from  the  favour  of  the  multitude ; 
exhort  to  patriotism.  All  is  accepted.  Politeness  is  the 
rule,  according  to  Skepsey's  experience  of  the  Southern  part 
of  the  third-class  kingdom.  And  it  is  as  well  to  mark  the 
divisions,  for  the  better  knowledge  of  our  countrymen. 
The  North  requires  volumes  to  itself. 

The  hard-grained  old  pirate-stock  Northward  has  built  the 
land,  and  is  to  the  front  when  w^e  are  at  our  epic  work. 
Meanwhile  it  gets  us  a  blowzy  character,  by  shouldering 
roughly  among  the  children  of  civilization.  Skepsey, 
journeying  one  late  afternoon  up  a  Kentish  line,  had,  in 
both  senses  of  the  word,  encountered  a  long-limbed  navvy ; 
an  intoxicated,  he  was  compelled  by  his  manly  modesty  to 
desire  to  think ;  whose  loathly  talk,  forced  upon  the  hearing 
of  a  decent  old  woman  opposite  him,  passed  baboonish  be- 
haviour ;  so  much  so,  that  Skepsey  civilly  intervened ;  sub- 
sequently inviting  him  to  leave  the  carriage  and  receive  a 
lesson  at  the  station  they  were  nearing.  Upon  his  promising 
faithfully,  that  it  should  be  a  true  and  telling  lesson,  the 
navvy  requested  this  pygmy  spark  to  flick  his  cheek,  merely 
to  show  he  meant  war  in  due  sincerity ;  and  he  as  faith- 
fully, all  honour,  promising  not  to  let  it  bring  about  a 
breakage  of  the  laws  of  the  Company,  Skepsey  promptly 
did  the  deed.     So  they  went  forth. 

Skepsey  alluded  to  the  incident,  for  an  example  of  the 
lamentable  deficiency  in  science  betrayed  by  most  of  our 
strong  men  when  put  to  it ;  and  the  bitter  thought,  that  he 
could  count  well  nigh  to  a  certainty  on  the  total  absence  of 
science  in  the  long-armed  navvy,  whose  fist  on  his  nose 
might  have  been  as  the  magnet  of  a  pin,  was  chief  among 
his  reminiscences  after  the  bout,  destroying  pleasure  for  the 
lover  of  Old  England's  might.  One  blow  would  have  sent 
Skepsey  travelling.  He  was  not  seriously  struck  once. 
They  parted,  shaking  hands ;  the  navvy  confessing  himself 
to  have  "  drunk  a  drop ; ''  and  that  perhaps  accounted  for 
his  having  been  "  topped  by  a  dot  on  him." 


THE   SQUIEES   IX   A   CONQUEEOB'S   SERVICE       309 

He  declined  to  make  oatli  never  to  repeat  his  offence ; 
but  said,  sending  his  vanquisher  to  the  deuce,  with  an  ami- 
cable push  at  his  shoulder,  "  Damned  if  I  ever  forget  five 
foot  five  stretched  six  foot  flat ! " 

Skepsey  counted  his  feet  some  small  amount  higher ;  but 
our  hearty  rovers'  sons  have  their  ballad  moods  when  giving 
or  taking  a  thrashing.  One  of  the  third-class  passengers,  a 
lad  of  twenty,  became  Skepsey's  pupil,  and  turned  out  clever 
with  the  gloves,  and  was  persuaded  to  enter  the  militia,  and 
grew  soon  to  be  a  corporal.  Thus  there  was  profit  of  the 
affair,  though  the  navvy  sank  out  of  sight.  Let  us  hope 
and  pray  he  will  not  insult  the  hearing  of  females  again. 
If  only  females  knew  how  necessary  it  is,  for  their  sakes,  to 
be  able  to  give  a  lesson  now  and  then !  Ladies  are  posi- 
tively opposed.  And  Judges  too,  who  dress  so  like  them. 
The  manhood  of  our  country  is  kept  down,  in  consequence. 
Mr.  Durance  was  right,  when  he  said  something  about  the 
state  of  war  being  wanted  to  weld  our  races  together  :  and 
yet  we  are  always  praying  for  the  state  of  peace,  which 
causes  cracks  and  gaps  among  us  !  Was  that  what  he  meant 
by  illogical?  It  seemed  to  Skepsey  —  oddly,  considering 
his  inferior  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  fair  sex  —  that  a 
young  woman  with  whom  he  had  recently  made  acquaint- 
ance; and  who  was  in  Brighton  now,  upon  missionary 
work;  a  member  of  the  "Army,''  an  officer  of  advancing 
rank,  Matilda  Pridden,  by  name,  — was  nearer  to  the  secret 
of  the  right  course  of  conduct  for  individual  citizens  and 
the  entire  country  than  any  gentleman  he  knew. 

Yes,  nearer  to  it  than  his  master  was  !  Thinking  of 
Mr.  Victor  Eadnor,  Skepsey  fetched  a  sigh.  He  had 
knocked  at  his  master's  door  at  the  office  one  day,  and 
imagining  the  call  to  enter,  had  done  so,  and  had  seen  a 
thing  he  could  not  expunge.  Lady  Grace  Halley  was 
there.  From  matters  he  gathered,  Skepsey  guessed  her 
to  be  working  for  his  master  among  the  great  folks,  as  he 
did  with  Jarniman,  and  Mr.  Fenellan  with  Mr.  Carling. 
But  is  it  usual,  he  asked  himself  —  his  natural  veneration 
framing  the  rebuke  to  his  master  thus  —  to  repay  the  ser- 
vices of  a  lady  so  warmly  ?  —  We  have  all  of  us  an  ermined 
owl  within  us  to  sit  in  judgement  of  our  superiors  as  well 
as  our  equals;  and  the  little  man,  notwithstanding  a  ser- 


810  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQTJEROES 

vant's  bounden  submissiveness,  was  forced  to  hear  the 
judicial  pronouncement  upon  his  master's  behaviour.  His 
master  had,  at  the  same  time,  been  saying  most  weighty 
kind  words  more  and  more  of  late:  one  thing:  — that,  if 
he  gave  all  he  had  to  his  fellows,  and  did  all  he  could, 
he  should  still  be  in  their  debt.  And  he  was  a  very 
wealthy  gentleman.  What  are  we  to  think  ?  The  waj's 
of  our  superiors  are  wonderful.  We  do  them  homage :  still 
we  feel,  we  painfully  feel,  we  are  beginning  to  worship 
elsewhere.  It  is  the  pain  of  a  detachment  of  the  very 
roots  of  our  sea-weed  heart  from  a  rock.  Mr.  Victor 
Radnor  was  an  honour  to  his  country.  Skepsey  did  not 
place  the  name  of  Matilda  Pridden  beside  it  or  in  any  way 
compare  two  such  entirely  different  persons.  At  the 
same  time  and  most  earnestly,  while  dreading  to  hear,  he 
desired  to  have  Matilda  Pridden 's  opinion  of  the  case  dis- 
tressing him.  He  never  could  hear  it,  because  he  could 
never  be  allowed  to  expound  the  case  to  her.  Skepsey 
sighed  again:  he  as  much  as  uttered:  Oh,  if  we  had  a  few 
thousands  like  her!  —  But  what  if  we  do  have  them? 
They  won't  marry !  There  they  are,  all  that  the  country 
requires  in  wives  and  mothers;  and  like  Miss  Priscilla 
Graves,  they  won't  marry  ! 

He  looked  through  sad  thoughts  across  the  benches  of 
the  compartments  to  the  farther  end  of  the  carriage,  where 
sat  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby,  looking  at  him  through  a 
meditation  as  obscure  if  not  so  mournful.  Few  are  the 
third-class  passengers  outward  at  that  early  hour  in  the 
winter  season,  and  Skepsey's  gymnastics  to  get  beside 
the  Rev.  Septimus  were  unimpeded ;  though  a  tight-packed 
carriage  of  us  poor  journaliers  would  not  have  obstructed 
them  with  as  much  as  a  sneer.  Mr.  Barmby  and  Skepsey 
greeted.  The  latter  said,  he  had  a  holiday,  to  pay  a  visit 
to  Miss  Nesta.  The  former  said,  he  hoped  he  should  see 
Miss  Nesta.  Skepsey  then  rapidly  brought  the  conversa- 
tion to  a  point  where  Matilda  Pridden  was  comprised.  He 
discoursed  of  the  "  Army  "  and  her  position  in  the  Army, 
giving  instances  of  her  bravery,  the  devotion  shown  by  her 
to  the  cause  of  morality,  in  all  its  forms.  Mr.  Barmby 
had  his  fortunes  in  his  hands  at  the  moment,  he  could  not 
lend  an  attentive  ear;  and  he  disliked  this  Army,  the  title 


THE  SQUIEES  IK  A  COKQITEROR's  SERVICE       811 

it  liad  taken,  and  the  mixing  of  women  and  men  in  its 
ranks ;  not  to  speak  of  a  presumption  in  its  proceedings, 
and  the  public  marching  and  singing.  Moreover,  he  en- 
joyed his  one  or  two  permissible  glasses :  he  doubted  that 
the  Chiefs  of  the  Army  had  common  benevolence  for  the 
inoffensive  pipe.  But  the  cause  of  morality  was  precious 
to  him ;  morality  and  a  fit  of  softness,  and  the  union  of  the 
happiest  contrast  of  voices,  had  set  him  for  a  short  while, 
before  the  dawn  of  Nesta's  day,  hankering  after  Priscilla 
Graves.  Skepsey's  narrative  of  Matilda  Pridden's  work 
down  at  the  East  of  London,  was  effective;  it  had  the 
ring  to  thrill  a  responsive  chord  in  Mr.  Barmby,  who 
mused  on  London's  East,  and  martyrly  service  there.  His 
present  expectations  were  of  a  very  different  sort;  but  a 
beautiful  bride,  bringing  us  wealth,  is  no  misleading  beam, 
if  we  direct  the  riches  rightly.  Septimus,  a  solitary 
minister  in  those  grisly  haunts  of  the  misery  breeding 
vice,  must  needs  accomplish  less  than  a  Septimus  the  hus- 
band of  one  of  England's  chief  heiresses:  —  only  not  the 
most  brilliant,  owing  to  circumstances  known  to  the  Rev. 
Groseman  Buttermore:  strangely,  and  opportunely,  re- 
vealed :  for  her  exceeding  benefit,  it  may  be  hoped.  She 
is  no  longer  the  ignorant  girl,  to  reject  the  protecting  hand 
of  one  whose  cloth  is  the  best  of  cloaking.  A  glance  at 
Dudley  Sowerby's  defection,  assures  our  worldly  wisdom 
too,  that  now  is  the  time  to  sue. 

Several  times  while  Mr.  Barmby  made  thus  his  pudding 
of  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  the  spirit,  Skepsey's  tales  of 
Matilda  Pridden's  heroism  caught  his  attention.  He  liked 
her  deeds;  he  disliked  the  position  in  which  the  young 
woman  placed  herself  to  perform  them;  and  he  said  so. 
Women  are  to  be  women  ^  he  said. 

Skepsey  agreed :  "  If  we  could  get  men  to  do  the  work, 
sir !  " 

Mr.  Barmby  was  launching  forth :  Plenty  of  men  !  —  His 
mouth  was  blocked  by  the  reflection,  that  we  count  the 
men  on  our  fingers ;  often  are  we,  as  it  were,  an  episcopal 
thumb  surveying  scarce  that  number  of  followers!  He 
diverged  to  censure  of  the  marchings  and  the  street- 
singing  :  the  impediment  to  traffic,  the  annoyance  to  a  finely 
musical  ear.     He  disapproved  altogether  of  Matilda  Prid- 


312  OiTE  OF   OUR  COXQUEKORS 

den's  military  display,  pronouncing  her  to  be,  "Doubtless 
a  worthy  young  person." 

"Her  age  is  twenty -seven, "  said  Skepse}^,  spying  at  the 
number  of  his  own. 

"You  have  known  her  long  ?"  Mr.  Barmby  asked. 

"Not  long,  sir.  She  has  gone  through  trouble.  She 
believes  very  strongly  in  the  will :  —  If  I  ivill  this,  if  I 
will  that,  and  it  is  the  right  will,  not  wickedness,  it  is 
done  —  as  good  as  done ;  and  force  is  quite  superfluous.  In 
her  sermons,  she  exhorts  to  prayer  before  action." 

"Preaches?" 

"She  moves  a  large  assembly,  sir." 

"It  would  seem  that  England  is  becoming  American- 
ized ! "  exclaimed  the  Conservative  in  Mr.  Barmby.  Al- 
most he  groaned;  and  his  gaze  was  fish-like  in  vacancy,  on 
hearing  the  little  man  speak  of  the  present  intrepid  for- 
wardness of  the  sex  to  be  publicly  doing.  It  is  for  men 
the  most  indigestible  fact  of  our  century :  one  that  by  con- 
trast throws  an  overearthlj^  holiness  on  our  decorous  dutiful 
mothers,  who  contentedly  worked  below  the  surface  while 
men  unremittingly  attended  to  their  interests  above. 

Skepsey  drew  forth  a  paper-covered  shilling-book:  a 
translation  from  the  French,  under  a  yelling  title  of  savage 
hate  of  Old  England  and  cannibal  glee  at  her  doom.  Mr. 
Barmby  dropped  his  eyelashes  on  it,  without  comment; 
nor  did  he  reply  to  Skepsey's  forlorn  remark:  "We  let 
them  think  they  could  do  it ! " 

Behold  the  downs.  Breakfast  is  behind  them.  Miss 
Eadnor  likewise :  if  the  poor  child  has  a  name.  We  pro- 
pose  to  supply  the  deficiency.  She  does  not  declare  war 
upon  tobacco.  She  has  a  cultured  and  a  beautiful  voice. 
We  abstain  from  enlargeing  on  the  charms  of  her  person. 
She  has  resources,  which  representatives  of  a  rival  creed 
would  plot  to  secure. 

"  Skepsey,  you  have  your  quarters  at  the  house  of  Miss 
Radnor's  relatives  ? "  said  Mr.  Barmby,  as  they  emerged 
from  tunnelled  chalk.  "  Mention,  that  I  think  of  calling 
in  the  course  of  the  day." 

A  biscuit  had  been  their  breakfast  without  a  name. 
They  parted  at  the  station,  roused  by  the  smell  of  salt  to 
bestow  a  more  legitimate  title  on  the  day's  restorative  be- 


THE  SQUIRES  IK  A  COKQUEROR's  SERVICE       313 

ginning.  Down  the  hill,  along  by  the  shops,  and  Skepsey, 
in  sight  of  Miss  Nesta's  terrace,  considered  it  still  an  early 
hour  for  a  visitor;  so,  to  have  the  sea  about  him,  he  paid 
pier-money,  and  hurried  against  the  briny  wings  of  a 
South-wester;  green  waves,  curls  of  foam,  flecks  of  silver, 
under  low-flying  grey-dark  cloud-curtains  shaken  to  a  rift, 
where  at  one  shot  the  sun  had  a  line  of  Nereids  nodding, 
laughing,  sparkling  to  him.  Skepsey  enjoyed  it,  at  the 
back  of  thoughts  military  and  naval.  Visible  sea,  this 
girdle  of  Britain,  inspired  him  to  exultations  in  reverence. 
He  wished  Mr.  Durance  could  behold  it  now  and  have 
such  a  breastful.  He  was  wishing  he  knew  a  song  of 
Britain  and  sea,  rather  fancying  Mr.  Durance  to  be  in 
some  way  a  bar  to  patriotic  poetical  recollection,  when 
he  saw  his  Captain  Dartrey  mounting  steps  out  of  an 
iron  anatomy  of  the  pier,  and  looking  like  a  razor  off  a 
strap. 

"  Why,  sir ! "  cried  Skepsey. 

"Just  a  plunge  and  a  dozen  strokes,"  Dartrey  said; 
"  and  you  '11  come  to  my  hotel  and  give  me  ten  minutes  of 
the  '  recreation; '  and  if  you  don't  come  willingly,  I  shall 
insult  your  country." 

"Ah !  I  wish  Mr.  Durance  were  here,"  Skepsey  rejoined. 

"It  would  upset  his  bumboat  of  epigrams.  He  rises  at 
ten  o'clock  to  a  queasy  breakfast  by  candlelight,  and  pro- 
ceeds to  composition.  His  picture  of  the  country  is  a 
portrait  of  himself  by  the  artist." 

"But,  sir,  Captain  Dartrey,  you  don't  think  as  Mr. 
Durance  does  of  England!" 

"  There  are  lots  to  flatter  her,  Skepsey !  A  drilling 
can't  do  her  harm.  You're  down  to  see  Miss  Nesta. 
Ladies  don't  receive  quite  so  early.  And  have  you  break- 
fasted ?  Come  on  with  me  quick."  Dartrey  led  him  on, 
saying :  "  You  have  an  eye  at  my  stick.  It  was  a  legacy  to 
me,  by  word  of  mouth,  from  a  seaman  of  a  ship  I  sailed 
in,  who  thought  I  had  done  him  a  service;  and  he  died 
after  all.  He  fell  overboard  drunk.  He  perished  of  the 
villain  stuff.  One  of  his  messmates  handed  me  the  stick 
in  Cape  Town,  sworn  to  deliver  it.  A  good  knot  to  grasp ; 
and  it 's  flexible  and  strong;  stick  or  rattan,  whichever  you 
please;  it  gives  point  or  caresses  the  shoulder j  there's  no 


B14  ONE  OF  OITR  COKQUEROES 

break  in  it,  whack  as  you  may.     They  call  it  a  Demerara 
supple-jack.     I  '11  leave  it  to  you." 

Skepsey  declared  his  iatention  to  be  the  first  to  depart. 
He  tried  the  temper  of  the  stick,  bent  it  a  bit,  and  admired 
the  prompt  straightening. 
X  "It  would  give  a  good  blow,  sir." 
i  "Does  its  business  without  braining." 
'  Perhaps  for  the  reason,  that  it  was  not  a  handsome  in- 
strument for  display  on  fashionable  promenades,  Dartrey 
chose  it  among  his  collection  by  preference ;  as  ugly  dogs 
of  a  known  fidelity  are  chosen  for  companions.  The 
Demerara  supple-jack  surpasses  bull-dogs  in  its  fashion  of 
assisting  the  master;  for  when  once  at  it,  the  clownish- 
looking  thing  reflects  upon  him  creditably,  by  developing 
a  refined  courtliness  of  style,  while  in  no  way  showing  a 
diminution  of  jolly  ardour  for  the  fray.  It  will  deal 
you  the  stroke  of  a  bludgeon  with  the  playfulness  of  a 
cane.  It  bears  resemblance  to  those  accomplished  natural 
actors,  who  conversationally  present  a  dramatic  situation 
in  two  or  three  spontaneous  flourishes,  and  are  themselves 
again,  men  of  the  world,  the  next  minute. 

Skepsey  handed  it  back.  He  spoke  of  a  new  French 
rifle.  He  mentioned,  in  the  form  of  query  for  no  answer, 
the  translation  of  the  barking  little  volume  he  had  shown 
to  Mr.  Barmby :  he  slapped  at  his  breast-pocket,  where  it 
was.  Not  a  ship  was  on  the  sea-line ;  and  he  seemed  to 
deplore  that  vacancy. 

"But  it  tells  both  ways,"  Dartrey  said.  "We  don't 
want  to  be  hectoring  in  the  Channel.  All  we  want,  is  to 
be  sure  of  our  power,  so  as  not  to  go  hunting  and  fawning 
for  alliances.  Up  along  that  terrace  Miss  Nesta  lives. 
Brighton  would  be  a  choice  place  for  a  landing." 

Skepsey  temporized,  to  get  his  national  defences,  by 
pleading  the  country's  love  of  peace. 

"  Then  you  give-up  your  portion  of  the  gains  of  war  — 
an  awful  disgorgement,"  said  Dartrey.  "If  you  are  really 
for  peace,  you  toss  all  your  spare  bones  to  the  war-dogs. 
Otherwise,  Quakerly  preaching  is  taken  for  hypocrisy." 

"I'm  afraid  we  are  illogical,  sir,"  said  Skepsey,  adopt- 
ing one  of  the  charges  of  Mr.  Durance,  to  elude  the  abom- 
inable word. 


THE  SQUIRES  IN  A  CONQUEROB'S  SERVICE       315 

"In  you  run,  my  friend."  Dartrey  sped  him  up  the 
steps  of  the  hotel. 

A  little  note  lay  on  his  breakfast-table.  His  invalid 
uncle's  valet  gave  the  morning's  report  of  the  night. 

The  note  was  from  Mrs.  Blathenoy:  she  begged  Captain 
Dartrey,  in  double  under-linings  of  her  brief  words,  to 
mount  the  stairs.     He  debated,  and  he  went. 

She  was  excited,  and  showed  a  bosom  compressed  to  ex- 
plode :  she  had  been  weeping.  "  My  husband  is  off.  He 
bids  me  follow  him.     What  would  you  have  me  do  ?  " 

"Go." 

"  You  don't  care  what  may  happen  to  your  friends,  the 
Radnors  ?  " 

"Not  at  the  cost  of  your  separation  from  your  husband." 

"  You  have  seen  him  !  " 

"Be  serious." 

"Oh,  you  cold  creature!  You  know  —  you  see:  I  can't 
conceal.  And  you  tell  me  to  go.  *  Go ' !  Gracious  heavens ! 
I've  no  claim  on  you;  I  have  n't  been  able  to  do  much;  1 
would  have  —  never  mind;  believe  me  or  not.  And  now 
I  'm  to  go :  on  the  spot,  I  suppose.  You  've  seen  the  man 
I  'm  to  go  to,  too.  I  would  bear  it,  if  it  were  not  away 
from  .  .  .  out  of  sight  of —  I 'm  a  fool  of  a  woman,  I 
know.  There  's  frankness  for  you !  and  I  could  declare 
you  're  saying  '  impudence  '  in  your  heart  —  or  what  you 
have  for  one.     Have  you  one  ?  " 

"My  dear  soul,  it's  a  flint.  So  just  think  of  your 
duty."  Dartrey  played  the  horrid  part  of  executioner 
with  some  skill. 

Her  bosom  sprang  to  descend  into  abysses. 

"  And  never  a  greater  fool  than  when  I  sent  for  you  to 
see  such  a  face  as  I  'm  showing ! "  she  cried,  with  lips  that 
twitched  and  fingers  that  plucked  at  her  belt.  "  But  you 
might  feel  my  hatred  of  being  tied  to  —  dragged  about 
over  the  Continent  by  that  .  .  .  perhaps  you  think  a 
woman  is  not  sensible  of  vulgarity  in  her  husband  !  I  'm 
bothering  you  ?  I  don't  say  I  have  the  slightest  claim. 
You  never  made  love  to  me,  never  !  Never  so  much  as 
pressed  my  hand  or  looked.  Others  have  —  as  much  as  I 
let  them.  And  before  I  saw  you,  I  had  not  an  idea  of 
another  man  but  that  man.     So  you  advise  me  to  go  ?  '^^'-  " 


816  OKE  OF  OtJB  COKQUEEORS 

"There  's  no  other  course." 

"No  other  course.  I  don't  see  one.  What  have  I  been 
dreaming  of  !  Usually  a  woman  feeling  ..."  she  struck 
at  her  breast,  "  has  had  a  soft  word  in  her  ear.  '  Go  \'  I 
don't  blame  you,  Captain  Dartrey.  At  least,  you  're  not 
the  man  to  punish  a  woman  for  stripping  herself,  as  I  've 
done.  I  call  myself  a  fool  —  I'm  a  lunatic.  Trust  me 
with  your  hand." 

"There  you  are." 

She  grasped  the  hand,  and  shut  her  eyes  to  make  a  long 
age  of  the  holding  on  to  him.  "  Oh,  you  dear  dear  fellow ! 
—  don't  think  me  unwomanly;  I  must  tell  you  now:  I  am 
naked  and  can't  disguise.  I  see  you  are  ice  —  feel :  and 
if  you  were  different,  I  might  be.  You  won't  be  hurt  by 
hearing  you  've  made  yourself  dear  to  me  —  without  mean- 
ing to,  I  know  !  It  began  that  day  at  Lakelands;  I  fell  in 
love  with  you  the  very  first  minute  I  set  eyes  on  you ! 
There  's  a  confession  for  a  woman  to  make !  —  and  a  mar- 
ried woman !  I  'm  married,  and  I  no  more  feel  allegiance, 
as  they  call  it,  than  if  there  never  had  been  a  ceremony 
and  no  Jacob  Blathenoy  was  in  existence.  And  why  I 
should  go  to  him  !  —  But  you  shan't  be  troubled.  I  did 
not  begin  to  live,  as  a  woman,  before  I  met  you.  I  can 
speak  all  this  to  you  because  —  we  women  can't  be  deceived 
in  that  —  you  are  one  of  the  men  who  can  be  counted  on 
for  a  friend." 

"I  hope  so,"  Dartrey  said,  and  his  mouth  hardened  as 
nature's  electricity  shot  sparks  into  him  from  the  touch 
and  rocked  him. 

"No,  not  yet:  I  will  soon  let  it  drop,"  said  she,  and  she 
was  just  then  thrillingly  pretty;  she  caressed  the  hand, 
placing  it  at  her  throat  and  moving  her  chin  on  it,  as 
women  fondle  birds.     "I  am  positively  to  go,  then  ?" 

"Positively,  you  are  to  go;  and  it's  my  command." 

"  Not  in  love  with  anyone  at  all  ?  " 

"Not  with  a  soul." 

"  Not  with  a  woman  ?  " 

"With  no  woman." 

"Nor  maid?" 

"No!  and  no  to  everything.  And  an  end  to  the 
catechism  I " 


THE   SQUIRES   IN  A   CONQUEEOR's   SERVICE       317 

"It  is  really  a  flint  that  beats  here  ?  "  she  said,  and  with 
a  shyness  in  adventurousness,  she  struck  the  point  of  her 
forefinger  on  the  rib.  "Fancy  me  in  love  with  a  flint! 
And  running  to  be  dutiful  to  a  Jacob  Blathenoy,  at  my 
flint's  command.  I  'm  half  in  love  with  doing  what  I 
hate,  because  this  cold  thing  here  bids  me  do  it.  I  believe 
I  married  for  money,  and  now  it  looks  as  if  I  were  to  have 
my  bargain  with  poverty  to  bless  it." 

"There  I  may  help,"  said  Dartrey,  relieved  at  sight  of  a 
loophole,  to  spring  to  some  initiative  out  of  the  paralysis 
cast  on  him  by  a  pretty  little  woman's  rending  of  her  veil. 
A  man  of  honour  alone  with  a  woman  who  has  tossed  con- 
cealment to  the  winds,  is  a  riddled  target  indeed:  he  is 
tempted  to  the  peril  of  cajoleing,  that  he  may  escape  from 
the  torment  and  the  ridicule ;  he  is  tempted  to  sigh  for  the 
gallant  spirit  of  his  naughty  adolescence.  "  Come  to  me 
—  will  you  ?  —  apply  to  me,  if  there  's  ever  any  need.  I 
happen  to  have  money.     And  forgive  me  for  naming  it." 

She  groaned :  "  Don't !  I  'm  sure,  and  I  thought  it  from 
the  first,  you  're  one  of  the  good  men,  and  the  woman  who 
meets  you  is  lucky,  and  wretched,  and  so  she  ought  to  be ! 
Only  to  you  should  I !  ...  do  believe  that !  I  won't 
speak  of  what  excuses  I  've  got.     You  've  seen." 

"Don't  think  of  them:  there  '11  be  danger  in  it." 

"  Shall  you  think  of  me  in  danger  ?  " 

"  Silly,  silly !  Don't  you  see  you  have  to  do  with  a  flint ! 
I  've  gone  through  fire.  And  if  I  were  in  love  with  you, 
I  should  start  you  off  to  your  husband  this  blessed  day." 

"  And  you  're  not  the  slightest  wee  wee  bit  in  love  with 
me!" 

"Perfectly  true;  but  I  like  you;  and  if  we  're  to  be  hand 
in  hand,  in  the  time  to-come,  you  must  walk  firm  at 
present." 

"I'm  to  go  to-day?" 

"You  are." 

"Without  .  .  .  one?    I  dare  say  we  shan't  meet  again." 

The  riddled  target  kicked.  Dartrey  contrasted  Jacob 
Blathenoy  with  the  fair  wife,  and  commiseratingly  exon- 
erated her;  he  lashed  at  himself  for  continuing  to  be  in 
this  absurdest  of  postures,  and  not  absolutely  secure  for 
all  that.     His  head  shook.  "Friends,  you  '11  find  best." 


318  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEKOES 

"  Well!  "  she  sighed,  "I  feel  I  'in  doomed  to  go  famished 
through  life.  There  's  never  to  be  such  a  thing  as  love,  for 
me!  I  can't  tell  you  —  no  woman  could:  though  you'll 
say  I  've  told  enough.  I  shall  burn  with  shame  when  I 
think  of  it.  I  could  go  on  my  knees  to  have  your  arms 
round  me  once.  I  could  kill  myself  for  saying  it !  —  I 
should  feel  that  I  had  one  moment  of  real  life.  —  I  know 
I  ought  to  admire  you.  They  say  a  woman  hates  if  she  's 
refused.  I  can't:  I  wish  I  were  able  to.  I  could  have 
helped  the  Radnors  better  by  staying  here  and  threatening 
never  to  go  to  him  unless  he  swore  not  to  do  them  injury. 
He 's  revengeful.  Just  as  you  like.  You  say  *  Go,'  and  I 
go.     There.     I  may  kiss  your  hand  ?  " 

"Give  me  yours." 

Dartrey  kissed  the  hand.  She  kissed  the  mark  of  his 
lips.  He  got  himself  away,  by  promising  to  see  her  to  the 
train  for  Paris.  Outside  her  door,  he  was  met  by  the 
reflection,  coming  as  a  thing  external,  that  he  might  vera- 
ciously  and  successfully  have  pleaded  a  passionate  hunger 
for  breakfast:  nay,  that  he  would  have  done  so,  if  he  had 
been  downright  in  earnest.  For  she  had  the  prettiness  to 
cast  a  spell ;  a  certain  curve  at  the  lips,  a  fluttering  droop 
of  the  eyelids,  a  corner  of  the  eye,  that  led  long  distances 
away  to  forests  and  nests.  This  little  woman  had  the 
rosy-peeping  June  bud's  plumpness.  What  of  the  man 
who  refused  to  kiss  her  once  ?  Cold  antecedent  immer- 
sion had  to  be  thanked;  and  stringent  vacuity;  perhaps  a 
spotting  ogre-image  of  her  possessor.  Some  sense  of 
right-doing  also,  we  hope.  Dartrey  angrily  attributed 
his  good  conduct  to  the  lowest  motives.  He  went  so  far 
as  to  accuse  himself  of  having  forborne  to  speak  of  break- 
fast, from  a  sort  of  fascinated  respect  for  the  pitch  of  a 
situation  that  he  despised  and  detested.  Then  again, 
when  beginning  to  eat,  his  good  conduct  drew  on  him  a 
chorus  of  the  jeers  of  all  the  martial  comrades  he  had 
known.  But  he  owned  he  would  have  had  less  excuse  than 
they,  had  he  taken  advantage  of  a  woriian's  inability,  at  a 
weak  moment,  to  protect  herself:  or  rather,  if  he  had  not 
behaved  in  a  manner  to  protect  her  from  herself.  He 
thought  of  his  buried  wife,  and  the  noble  in  the  base  of 
that  poor  soul;  needing  constantly  a  present  helper,  for 


THE  SQUIRES  IN  A  CONQUEROR'S   SERVICE       319 

the  nobler  to  conquer.  Be  true  man  with  a  woman,  she 
must  be  viler  than  the  devil  has  yet  made  one,  if  she  does 
not  follow  a  strong  right  lead :  —  but  be  patient,  of  course. 
And  the  word  patience  here  means  more  than  most  men 
contain.  Certainly  a  man  like  Jacob  Blathenoy  was  a 
mouthful  for  any  woman:  and  he  had  bought  his  wife,  he 
deserved  no  pity.  Not?  Probably  not.  That  view,  how- 
ever, is  unwholesome  and  opens  on  slides.  Pity  of  his 
wife,  too,  gets  to  be  fervidly  active  with  her  portrait, 
fetches  her  breath  about  us.  As  for  condemnation  of  the 
poor  little  woman,  her  case  was  not  unexampled,  though 
the  sudden  flare  of  it  startled  rather.  Mrs.  Victor  could 
read  men  and  women  closely.  Yes,  and  Victor,  when  he 
schemed  —  but  Dartrey  declined  to  be  throwing  blame 
right  or  left.  More  than  by  his  breakfast,  and  in  a  pref- 
erable direction,  he  was  refreshed  by  Skepsey's  narrative 
of  the  deeds  of  Matilda  Pridden. 

'  "The  right  sort  of  girl  for  you  to  know,  Skepsey,"  he 
said.     "The  best  in  life  is  a  good  woman." 

Skepsey  exhibited  his  book  of  the  Gallic  howl. 

"They  have  their  fits  now  and  then,  and  they're  soon 
over  and  forgotten,'' Dartrey  said.  "The  worst  of  it  is, 
that  we  remember." 

After  the  morning's  visit  to  his  uncle,  he  peered  at  half 
a  dozen  sticks  in  the  corner  of  the  room,  grasped  their 
handles,  and  selected  the  Demerara  supple-jack,  for  no 
particular  reason;  the  curved  knot  was  easy  to  the  grasp. 
It  was  in  his  mind,  that  this  person  signing  herself  Judith 
Marsett,  might  have  something  to  say  which  intimately 
concerned  Nesta.  He  fell  to  brooding  on  it,  until  he 
wondered  why  he  had  not  been  made  a  trifle  anxious  by 
the  reading  of  the  note  overnight.  Skepsey  was  left  at 
Nesta's  house. 

Dartrey  found  himself  expected  by  the  servant  waiting 
on  Mrs.  Marsett. 


320  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEKOES 


CHAPTEE  XXXII 

SHOWS   HOW  TEMPER  MAY   KINDLE   TEMPER  AND   AN  INDIG- 
NANT  WOMAN    GET   HER  WEAPON 

Judith  Marsett  stood  in  her  room  to  receive  Nesta's 
hero.  She  was  flushed,  and  had  thinned  her  lips  for  utter- 
ance of  a  desperate  thing,  after  the  first  severe  formalities. 

Her  aim  was  to  preserve  an  impressive  decorum.  She 
was  at  the  same  time  burning  to  speak  out  furious  wrath, 
in  words  of  savage  rawness,  if  they  should  come,  as  a 
manner  of  slapping  the  world's  cheek  for  the  state  to 
which  it  reduces  its  women;  whom  one  of  the  superior 
creatures  can  insult,  and  laugh. 

Men  complaining  of  the  "  peace  which  is  near  their  extinc- 
tion," have  but  to  shuffle  with  the  sex;  they  will  experi- 
ence as  remarkable  a  change  as  if  they  had  passed  off  land 
on  to  sea. 

Dartrey  had  some  flitting  notion  of  the  untamed  original 
elements  women  can  bring  about  us  in  his  short  observant 
bow  to  Mrs.  Marsett,  following  so  closely  upon  the  scene 
with  Mrs.  Blathenoy. 

But  this  handsome  woman's  look  of  the  dull  red  line  of 
a  sombre  fire,  that  needed  only  stir  of  a  breath  to  shoot 
the  blaze,  did  not  at  all  alarm  him.  He  felt  refreshingly 
strung  by  it. 

She  was  discerned  at  a  glance  to  be  an  aristocratic  mem- 
ber of  regions  where  the  senses  perpetually  simmer  when 
they  are  not  boiling.  The  talk  at  the  Club  recurred  to 
him.  How  could  Nesta  have  come  to  know  the  woman  ? 
His  questioning  of  the  chapter  of  marvellous  accidents, 
touched  Nesta  simply,  as  a  young  girl  to  be  protected, 
without  abhorrently  involving  the  woman.  He  had  his 
ideas  of  the  Spirit  of  Woman  stating  her  case  to  the  One 
Judge,  for  lack  of  an  earthly  just  one:  a  story  different 
from  that  which  is  proclaimed  pestilential  by  the  body  of 
censors  under  conservatory  glass;  where  flesh  is  delicately 
nurtured,  highly  prized ;  spirit  not  so  much  so ;  and  where 
the  pretty  tricking  of  the  flesh  is  taken  for  a  spiritual 
ascendancy.   , . 


HOW  TEIVIPEE  ]MAY  KINDLE  TEIVIPEE.  321 

In  spite  of  her  turbulent  breast's  burden  to  deliver,  Mrs. 
Marsett's  feminine  acuteuess  was  alive  upon  Dartrey,  con- 
firming here  and  there  Nesta's  praises  of  him.  She  liked 
his  build  and  easy  carriage  of  a  muscular  frame :  her  Ned 
was  a  heavy  man.  More  than  Dartrey's  figure,  as  she 
would  have  said,  though  the  estimate  came  second,  she 
liked  his  manner  with  her.  Not  a  doubt  was  there,  that 
he  read  her  position.  She  could  impose  upon  some :  not 
upon  masculine  eyes  like  these.  They  did  not  scrutinize, 
nor  ruffle  a  smooth  surface  with  a  snap  at  petty  impres- 
sions ;  and  they  were  not  cynically  intimate  or  dominating 
or  tentatively  amorous :  clear  good  fellowship  was  in  them. 
And  it  was  a  blessedness  (whatever  might  be  her  feeling 
later,  when  she  came  to  thank  him  at  heart)  to  be  in  the 
presence  of  a  man  whose  appearance  breathed  of  offering 
her  common  ground,  whereon  to  meet  and  speak  together, 
unburdened  by  the  hunting  world,  and  by  the  stoneing 
world.  Such  common  ground  seems  a  kind  of  celestial  to 
the  better  order  of  those  excluded  from  it. 

Dartrey  relieved  her  midway  in  a  rigid  practice  of  the 
formalities:  "I  think  I  may  guess  that  you  have  some- 
thing to  tell  me  relating  to  Miss  Kadnor  ?  " 

"It  is."  Mrs.  Marsett  gathered  up  for  an  immediate 
plunge,  and  deferred  it.  "  I  met  her  —  we  went  out  with 
the  riding-master.  She  took  to  me.  I  like  her  —  I  could 
say"  (the  woman's  voice  dropped  dead  low,  in  a  tremble), 
"  I  love  her.  She  is  young :  —  I  could  kneel  to  her.  Do 
you  know  a  Major  Worrell  ?  " 

"Worrell?  no." 

"  He  is  a  —  calls  himself  a  friend  of  my  —  of  Captain 
Marsett's.     He  met  us  out  one  day." 

"  He  permitted  himself  to  speak  to  Miss  Eadnor  ?  " 

She  rejoiced  in  Dartrey's  look.  "Not  then.  First  let 
me  tell  you.  I  can  hardly  tell  you.  But  Miss  Radnor 
tells  me  you  are  not  like  other  men.  You  have  made  your 
conclusions  already.  Are  you  asking  what  right  I  had  to 
be  knowing  her  ?  It  is  her  goodness.  Accident  began  it; 
I  did  not  deceive  her ;  as  soon  as  ever  I  could  I  —  I  have 
Captain  Marsett's  promise  to  me :  at  present  he  's  situated, 
he  —  but  I  opened  my  heart  to  her :  as  much  as  a  woman 
can.     It  came !     Did  I  do  very  wrong  ?  " 

21 


322  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQTJERORS 

"I  'm  not  here  to  decide:  continue,  pray." 

Mrs.  Marsett  aimed  at  formal  speech,  and  was  driving 
upon  her  natural  in  anger.  "I  swear  I  did  it  for  the  best. 
She  is  an  innocent  girl  .  .  .  young  lady:  only  she  has  a 
head;  she  soon  reads  things.  I  saw  the  kind  of  cloud  in 
her.  I  spoke.  I  felt  bound  to:  she  said  she  would  not 
forsake  me.  —  I  was  bound  to !  And  it  was  enough  to 
break  my  heart,  to  think  of  her  despising  me.  No,  she 
forgave,  pitied;  she  was  kind.  Those  are  the  angels  who 
cause  us  to  think  of  changeing.  I  don't  care  for  sermons, 
but  when  I  meet  charity :  —  I  won't  bore  you  !  " 

"You  don't." 

"My  .  .  .  Captain  Marsett  can't  bear  —  he  calls  it 
Psalmody.  He  thinks  things  ought  always  to  be  as  they 
are,  with  women  and  men;  and  women  preachers  he  does 
detest.  She  is  not  one  to  preach.  You  are  waiting  to  hear 
what  I  have  to  tell.  That  man  Major  Worrell  has  tried  to 
rob  me  of  everything  I  ever  had  to  set  a  value  on :  —  love, 
I  'd  say;  —  he  laughs  at  a  woman  like  me  loving." 

Dartrey  nodded,  to  signify  a  known  sort  of  fellow. 

"She  came  here."  Mrs.  Marsett's  tears  had  risen.  "I 
ought  not  to  have  let  her  come.  I  invited  her  —  for  once : 
I  am  lonely.  None  of  my  sex  —  none  I  could  respect !  I 
meant  it  for  only  once.  She  promised  to  sing  to  me. 
And,  Oh!  how  she  sings!  You  have  heard  her.  My 
whole  heart  came  out.  I  declare  I  believe  girls  exist 
who  can  hear  our  way  of  life  —  and  I  'm  not  so  bad  except 
compared  with  that  angel,  who  heard  me,  and  was  and  is, 
I  could  take  oath,  no  worse  for  it.  Some  girls  can;  she  is 
one.  I  am  all  for  bringing  them  up  in  complete  innocence. 
If  I  was  a  great  lady,  my  daughters  should  never  know 
anything  of  the  world  until  they  were  married.  But  Miss 
Eadnor  is  a  young  lady  who  cannot  be  hurt.  She  is  above 
us.  Oh  I  what  a  treasure  for  a  man  !  —  and  my  God!  for 
any  man  born  of  woman  to  insult  a  saint,  as  she  is !  —  He 
is  a  beast !  " 

"Major  Worrell  met  her  here  ?  " 

"  Blame  me  as  much  as  you  like :  I  do  myself.  Half  my 
rage  with  him  is  at  myself  for  putting  her  in  the  way  of 
such  a  beast  to  annoy.  Each  time  she  came,  I  said  it  was 
to  be  the  last.     I  let  her  see  what  a  mercy  from  heaveu 


HOW  TEMPER  MAY  KIKDLE  TEMPER  323 

she  was  to  me.  She  would  come.  It  has  not  been  many 
times.  She  wishes  me  either  to  .  .  .  Captain  Marsett  has 
promised.  And  nothing  seems  hard  to  me  when  my  own 
God's  angel  is  by.  She  is  !  I  'm  not  such  a  bad  woman, 
but  I  never  before  I  knew  her  knew  the  meaning  of  the 
word  virtue.  There  is  the  young  lady  that  man  worried 
with  his  insulting  remarks  !  though  he  must  have  known 
she  was  a  lady:  — because  he  found  her  in  my  rooms." 

"You  were  present  when,  as  you  say,  he  insulted  her  ?" 

"I  was.  Here  it  commenced j  and  he  would  see  her 
downstairs." 

"You  heard?" 

"Of  course,  I  never  left  her." 

"Give  me  a  notion  ..." 

"To  get  her  to  make  an  appointment:  to  let  him  conduct 
her  home." 

"  She  was  alone  ?  " 

"Her  maid  was  below." 

"And  this  happened  .  .  .  ? 

"Yesterday,  after  dark.  My  Ned  —  Captain  Marsett 
encourages  him  to  be  familiar.  I  should  be  the  lowest  of 
women  if  I  feared  the  threats  of  such  a  reptile  of  a  man. 
I  could  tell  you  more.  I  can't  always  refuse  his  visits, 
though  if  Ned  knew  the  cur  he  is!  Captain  Marsett  is 
easy-going." 

"I  should  like  to  know  where  he  lives." 

She  went  straight  to  the  mantelpiece,  and  faced  about 
with  a  card,  handing  it,  quite  aware  that  it  was  a  charge 
of  powder. 

Desperate  things  to  be  done  excused  the  desperate  said ; 
and  especially  they  seemed  a  cover  to  the  bald  and  often 
spotty  language  leaping  out  of  her,  against  her  better  taste, 
when  her  temper  was  up. 

"Somewhere  not  very  distant,"  said  Dartrey,  perusing. 
"  Is  he  in  the  town  to-day,  do  you  know  ?  " 

"I  am  not  sure;  he  may  be.     Her  name  .  .  ." 

"Have  no  fear.     Ladies'  names  are  safe." 

"I  am  anxious  that  she  may  not  be  insulted  again." 

"Did  she  show  herself  conscious  of  it  ?  " 

"She  stopped  speaking:  she  looked  at  the  door.  She 
may  come  again  —  or  never !  through  that  man  I  " 


324  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

"  You  receive  him,  at  his  pleasure  ?  " 

"Captain  Marsett  wishes  me  to.  He  is  on  his  way 
home.  He  calls  Major  Worrell  my  pet  spite.  All  I  waut 
is,  not  to  hear  of  the  man.  I  swear  he  came  yesterday  on 
the  chance  of  seeing  —  for  he  forced  his  way  up  past  my 
servant;  he  must  have  seen  Miss  Radnor's  maid  below." 

"You  don't  mean,  that  he  insulted  her  hearing  ?" 

"Oh  !  Captain  Fenellan,  you  know  the  style.'' 

"  Well,  I  thank  you,"  Dartrey  said.  "  The  young  lady  is 
the  daughter  of  my  dearest  friends.  She  's  one  of  the 
precious  —  you  're  quite  right.     Keep  the  tears  back." 

"I  will."  She  heaved  open-mouthed  to  get  physical 
control  of  the  tide.  "  When  you  say  that  of  her  !  —  how 
can  I  help  it  ?  It 's  I  fear,  because  I  fear  .  .  .  and  I  've 
no  right  to  expect  ever  .  .  .  but  if  I  'm  never  again  to 
look  on  that  dear  face,  tell  her  I  shall  —  I  shall  pray  for 
her  in  my  grave.  Tell  her  she  has  done  all  a  woman  can, 
an  angel  can,  to  save  my  soul.  I  speak  truth:  my  very 
soul!  I  could  never  go  to  the  utter  bad  after  knowing  her. 
I  don't  —  you  know  the  world  —  I  'm  a  poor  helpless 
woman!  —  don't  swear  to  give  up  my  Ned  if  he  does 
break  the  word  he  promised  once;  I  can't  see  how  I  could. 
I  have  n't  her  courage.  I  have  n't  —  what  it  is !  —  You 
know  her :  it 's  in  her  eyes  and  her  voice.  If  I  had  her 
beside  me,  then  I  could  starve  or  go  to  execution  —  I  could, 
I  am  certain.  Here  I  am,  going  to  do  what  you  men  hate. 
Let  me  sit." 

"  Here  's  a  chair,"  said  Dartrey.  "  I  've  no  time  to  spare ; 
good  day,  for  the  present.     You  will  permit  me  to  call." 

"  Oh !  come, "  she  cried,  out  of  her  sobs,  for  excuse. 
They  were  genuine,  or  she  would  better  have  been  able  to 
second  her  efforts  to  catch  a  distinct  vision  of  his  retreat- 
ing figure. 

She  beheld  him,  when  he  was  in  the  street,  turn  for  the 
district  where  Major  Worrell  had  his  lodgeings.  That  set 
her  mind  moving,  and  her  tears  fell  no  longer. 

Major  Worrell  was  not  at  home.  Dartrey  was  informed 
that  he  might  be  at  his  Club. 

At  the  Club  he  heard  of  the  major  as  having  gone  to 
London  and  being  expected  down  in  the  afternoon. 
Colonel  Sudley  named  the  train:  an  early  train;  the  major 


HOW  TEMPER  MAY  KINDLE  TEMPER  825 

was  engaged  to  dine  at  the  Club.  Dartrey  bad  information 
supplied  to  him  concerning  Major  Worrell  and  Captain 
Marsett,  also  Mrs.  Marsett.  She  had  a  history.  Worthy 
citizens  read  the  description  of  history  with  interest  when 
the  halo  of  Eoyalty  is  round  it.  They  may,  if  their  read- 
ing extends,  perceive,  that  it  has  been  the  main  turbid 
stream  in  old  Mammon's  train  since  he  threw  his  bait  for 
flesh.  They  might  ask,  too,  whether  it  is  likely  to  cease 
to  flow  while  he  remains  potent.  The  lady's  history  was 
brief,  and  bore  recital  in  a  Club;  came  off  quite  honourably 
there.  Eegarding  Major  Worrell,  the  tale  of  him  showed 
him  to  have  a  pass  among  men.  He  managed  cleverly  to 
get  his  pleasures  out  of  a  small  income  and  a  "fund  of 
anecdote."  His  reputation  indicated  an  anecdotist  of  the 
table,  prevailing  in  the  primitive  societies,  where  the  art 
of  conversing  does  not  come  by  nature,  and  is  exercised  in 
monosyllabic  undertones  or  grunts  until  the  narrator's  well- 
masticated  popular  anecdote  loosens  a  digestive  laughter, 
and  some  talk  ensues.  He  was  Marsett' s  friend,  and  he 
boasted  of  not  letting  Ned  Marsett  make  a  fool  of  himself. 

Dartrey  was  not  long  in  shaping  the  man's  character : 
Worrell  belonged  to  the  male  birds  of  upper  air,  who 
mangle  what  female  prey  they  are  forbidden  to  devour. 
And  he  had  Miss  Eadnor's  name :  he  had  spoken  her  name 
at  the  Club  overnight.  He  had  roused  a  sensation,  because 
of  a  man  being  present,  Percy  Southweare,  who  was  related 
to  a  man  as  good  as  engaged  to  marry  her.  The  major 
never  fell  into  a  quarrel  with  sons  of  nobles,  if  he  could 
help  it,  or  there  might  have  been  a  pretty  one. 

So  Colonel  Sudley  said. 

Dartrey  spoke  musing:  "I  don't  know  how  he  may  class 
me;  I  have  an  account  to  square  with  him." 

"It  won't  do  in  these  days,  my  good  friend.  Come  and 
cool  yourself;  and  we  '11  lunch  here.     I  shan't  leave  you." 

"By  all  means.  We  '11  lunch,  and  walk  up  to  the  sta- 
tion, and  you  will  point  him  out  to  me." 

Dartrey  stated  Major  Worrell's  offence.  The  colonel 
was  not  astonished;  but  evidently  he  thought  less  of  Wor- 
rell's behaviour  to  Miss  Eadnor  in  Mrs.  Marsett's  presence 
than  of  the  mention  of  her  name  at  the  Club:  and  that, 
he  seemed  to  think,  had  a  shade  of  excuse^^against  the 


826  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

charge  of  monstrous.  He  blamed  the  young  lady  who 
could  go  twice  to  visit  a  Mrs.  Marsett;  partly  exposed  a 
suspicion  of  her.  Dartrey  let  him  talk.  They  strolled 
along  the  parade,  and  were  near  the  pier. 

Suddenly  saying:  ''There,  beside  our  friend  in  clerical 
garb:  here  she  comes;  judge  if  that  is  the  girl  for  the 
foulest  of  curs  to  worry,  no  matter  where  she  's  found," 
Dartrey  directed  the  colonel's  attention  to  Nesta  and  Mr. 
Barmby  turning  off  the  pier  and  advancing. 

He  saluted.  She  bowed.  There  was  no  contraction  of 
her  eyelids;  and  her  face  was  white.  The  mortal  life 
appeared  to  be  deadened  in  her  cold  wide  look;  as  when 
the  storm-wind  banks  a  leaden  remoteness,  leaving  blown 
space  of  sky. 

The  colonel  said:  "No,  that 's  not  the  girl  a  gentleman 
would  offend." 

"What  man!  "  cried  Dartrey.  "If  we  had  a  Society  for 
the  trial  of  your  gentleman !  —  but  he  has  only  to  call 
himself  gentleman  to  get  grant  of  licence :  and  your  Society 
protects  him.  It  won't  punish,  and  it  won't  let  you.  But 
you  saw  her:  ask  yourself  —  what  man  could  offend  that 
girl!" 

"Still,  my  friend,  she  ought  to  keep  clear  of  the 
Marsetts." 

"  When  I  meet  him,  I  shall  treat  him  as  one  out  of  the 
law." 

"You  lead  on  to  an  ultimate  argument  with  the 
hangman." 

"  We  '11  dare  it,  to  waken  the  old  country.  Old  England 
will  count  none  but  Worrells  in  time.  As  for  discreet,  if 
you  like  !  —  the  young  lady  might  have  been  more  discreet. 
She  's  a  girl  with  a  big  heart.  If  we  were  all  everlast- 
inglj  discreet !  " 

Dartrey  may  have  meant,  that  the  consequence  of  a  pro- 
longed conformity  would  be  the  generation  of  stenches  to 
shock  to  purgeing  tempests  the  tolerant  heavens  over  such 
smooth  stagnancy.  He  had  his  ideas  about  movement; 
about  the  good  of  women,  and  the  health  of  his  England. 
The  feeling  of  the  hopelessness  of  pleading  Nesta's  conduct, 
for  the  perfect  justification  of  it  to  son  or  daughter  of  our 
impressing  conventional   world  —  even  to  a  friend,  that 


A  PAIR  OF  WOOERS  327 

friend  a  true  man,  a  really  chivalrous  man !  —  drove  him 
back  in  a  silence  upon  his  natural  brotherhood  with  souls 
that  dare  do.  It  was  a  wonder,  to  think  of  his  finding  this 
kinship  in  a  woman.  In  a  girl?  —  and  the  world  holding 
that  virgin  spirit  to  be  unclean  or  shadowed  because  its 
rays  were  shed  on  foul  places?  He  clasped  the  girl.  Her 
smitten  clear  face,  the  face  of  the  second  sigh  after  tor- 
ture, bent  him  in  devotion  to  her  image. 

The  clasping  and  the  worshipping  were  independent  of 
personal  ardours :  quaintly  mixed  with  semi-paternal  recol- 
lections of  the  little  "blue  butterfly  "  of  the  days  at  Craye 
Farm  and  Creckholt;  and  he  had  heard  of  Dudley  Sow- 
erby's  pretensions  to  her  hand.  Nesta's  youthfulness  cast 
double  age  on  him  from  the  child's  past.  He  pictured  the 
child;  pictured  the  girl,  with  her  look  of  solitariness  of 
sight;  as  in  the  desolate  wide  world,  where  her  noble  com- 
passion for  a  woman  had  unexpectedly,  painfully,  almost 
by  transubstantiation,  rack-screwed  her  to  woman's  mind. 
And  above  sorrowful,  holy  were  those  eyes. 

They  held  sway  over  Dartrey,  and  lost  it  some  steps  on ; 
his  demon  temper  urgeing  him  to  strike  at  Major  Worrell, 
as  the  cause  of  her  dismayed  expression.  He  was  not  the 
happier  for  dropping  to  his  nature ;  but  we  proceed  more 
easily,  all  of  us,  when  the  strain  which  lifts  us  a  foot  or 
two  off  our  native  level  is  relaxed. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

A   PAIR   OF   WOOERS 


That  ashen  look  of  the  rise  out  of  death  from  one  of  our 
mortal  wounds,  was  caused  by  deeper  convulsions  in 
Nesta's  bosom  than  Dartrey  could  imagine. 

She  had  gone  for  the  walk  with  Mr.  Barmby,  reading 
the  omen  of  his  tones  in  the  request.  Dorothea  and  Vir- 
ginia would  have  her  go.  The  clerical  gentleman,  a  friend 
of  the  Eev.  Abram  Posterley;  and  one  who  deplored  poor 
Mr.  Posterley 's  infatuation;  and  one  besides  who  belonged 


S28  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

to  Nesta's  musical  choir  in  London,  —  seemed  a  safe  com- 
panion for  the  child.  The  grand  organ  of  Mr.  Barmby^s 
voice,  too,  assured  them  of  a  devout  seriousness  in  him, 
that  arrested  any  scrupulous  little  questions.  They  could 
not  conceive  his  uttering  the  nonsensical  empty  stuff,  com- 
pliments to  their  beauty  and  what  not,  which  girls  hear 
sometimes  from  inconsiderate  gentlemen,  to  the  having  of 
their  heads  turned.  Moreover,  Nesta  had  rashly  promised 
her  father's  faithful  servant  Skepsey  to  walk  out  with  him 
in  the  afternoon;  and  the  ladies  hoped  she  would  find  the 
morning's  walk  to  have  been  enough;  good  little  man 
though  Skepsey  was,  they  were  sure.  But  there  is  the 
incongruous  for  young  women  of  station  on  a  promenade. 

Mr.  Barmby  headed  to  the  pier.  After  pacing  up  and 
down  between  the  briny  gulls  and  a  polka-band,  he  made 
his  way  forethoughtfully  to  the  glass-sheltered  seats  front- 
ing East:  where,  as  his  enthusiasm  for  the  solemnity  of 
the  occasion  excited  him  to  say,  "  We  have  a  view  of  the 
terraces  and  the  cliffs ;  "  and  where  not  more  than  two 
enwrapped  invalid  figures  were  ensconsed.  Then  it  was, 
that  Nesta  recalled  her  anticipation  of  his  possible  design; 
forgotten  by  her  during  their  talk  of  her  dear  people: 
Priscilla  Graves  and  Mr.  Pempton,  and  the  Yatts,  and 
Simeon  Fenellan,  Peridon  and  Catkin,  and  Skepsey  like- 
wise ;  and  the  very  latest  news  of  her  mother.  She  wished 
she  could  have  run  before  him,  to  spare  him.  He  would 
not  notice  a  sign.     Girls  must  wait  and  hear. 

It  was  an  oratorio.  She  watched  the  long  wave  roll  on 
to  the  sinking  into  its  fellow ;  and  onward  again  for  the 
swell  and  the  weariful  lapse ;  and  up  at  last  bursting  to 
the  sheet  of  white.  The  far-heard  roar  and  the  near  com- 
mingled, giving  Mr.  Barmby  a  semblance  to  the  powers  of 
ocean. 

At  the  first  direct  note,  the  burden  of  which  necessitated 
a  pause,  she  petitioned  him  to  be  her  friend,  to  think  of 
himself  as  her  friend. 

But  a  vessel  laden  with  merchandize,  that  has  crossed 
wild  seas  for  this  particular  port,  is  hardly  to  be  debarred 
from  discharging  its  goods  on  the  quay  by  simple  intima- 
tions of  their  not  being  wanted.  We  are  precipitated  both 
by  the  aim  and  the  tedium  of  the  lengthened  voyage  to  insist 


A  PAIR  OF  WOOERS  820 

that  they  be  seen.  We  believe  perforce  in  their  tempting- 
ness ;  and  should  allurement  fail,  we  fall  back  to  the  belief 
in  our  eloquence.  An  eloquence  to  expose  the  qualities 
they  possess,  is  the  testification  in  the  promise  of  their 
excellence.  She  is  to  be  induced  by  feeling  to  see  it.  We 
are  asking  a  young  lady  for  the  precious  gift  of  her  hand. 
We  respect  her ;  and  because  of  our  continued  respect,  de- 
spite an  obstruction,  we  have  come  to  think  we  have  a  claim 
upon  her  gratitude ;  could  she  but  be  led  to  understand  how 
different  we  are  from  some  other  men  !  —  from  one  hitherto 
favoured  among  them,  unworthy  of  this  prize,  however 
personally  exalted  and  meritorious. 

The  wave  of  wide  extension  rolled  and  sank  and  rose, 
heaving  lifeless  variations  of  the  sickly  streaks  on  its  dull 
green  back. 

Dudley  Sowerby's  defection  was  hinted  at  and  accounted 
for,  by  the  worldly  test  of  worldly  considerations. 

What  were  they  ?  —  Nesta  glanced. 

An  indistinct  comparison  was  modestly  presented,  of  one 
unmoved  by  worldly  considerations. 

But  what  were  they  ?  She  was  wakened  by  a  lamp,  and 
her  darkness  was  all  inflammable  to  it. 

*'  Oh  !  Mr.  Barmby,  you  have  done  me  the  honour  to 
speak  before  ;  you  know  my  answer,"  she  said. 

"  You  were  then  subject  to  an  influence.  A  false,  I  may 
say  wicked,  sentiment  upholding  celibacy." 

"  My  poor  Louise  ?  She  never  thought  of  influencing 
me.  She  has  her  views,  I  mine.  Our  friendship  does  not 
depend  on  a  *  treaty  of  reciprocity.'  We  are  one  at  heart, 
each  free  to  judge  and  act,  as  it  should  be  in  friendship.  I 
heard  from  her  this  morning.  Her  brother  will  be  able  to 
resume  his  military  duties  next  month.  Then  she  will 
return  to  me." 

"  We  propose ! "  rejoined  Mr.  Barmby. 

Beholding  the  involuntary  mercurial  rogue-dimple  he  had 
started  from  a  twitch  at  the  corner  of  her  lips,  the  good 
gentleman  pursued :  "  Can  we  dare  write  our  designs  for  the 
month  to  come  ?  Ah  !  —  I  will  say  —  Nesta !  give  me  the 
hope  I  beg  to  have.  See  the  seriousness.  You  are  at  liberty. 
That  other  has  withdrawn  his  pretensions.  We  will  not 
blame  him.    He  is  in  expectation  of  exalted  rank.    Where 


330  ONE  OF  OUE  CONQXJEROES 

there  is  any  shadow  !  .  .  ."  Mr.  Barmby  paused  on  his 
outroll  of  the  word ;  but  immediately,  not  intending  to 
weigh  down  his  gentle  hearer  with  the  significance  in  it;, 
resumed  at  a  yet  more  sonorous  depth:  "He  is  under  the 
obligation  to  his  family ;  an  old,  a  venerable  family.  In  the 
full  blaze  of  public  opinion !  His  conduct  can  be  palliated 
by  us,  too.  There  is  a  right  and  wrong  in  minor  things, 
independent  of  the  higher  rectitude.  We  pardon,  we  can 
partly  support,  the  worldly  view." 

"  There  is  a  shadow  ?  "  said  Nesta ;  and  her  voice  was 
lurefully  encouraging. 

He  was  on  the  footing  where  men  are  precipitated  by 
what  is  within  them  to  blunder.  "  On  you  —  no.  On  you 
personally,  not  at  all.  No.  It  could  not  be  deemed  so. 
Not  by  those  knowing,  esteeming  —  not  by  him  who  loves 
you,  and  would,  with  his  name,  would,  with  his  whole 
strength,  envelop,  shield  .  .  .  certainly  certainly  not." 

"  It  is  on  my  parents  ?  "  she  said. 

"But  to  me  nothing,  nothing,  quite  nought !  To  confound 
the  innocent  with  the  guilty  !  .  .  .  and  excuses  may  exist. 
We  know  but  how  little  we  know  !  " 

"  It  is  on  both  my  parents  ?  "  she  said,  with  a  simplicity 
that  induced  him  to  reply  :  "  Before  the  world.  But  not, 
I  repeat  .  .  ." 

The  band-instruments  behind  the  sheltering  glass  flour- 
ished on  their  termination  of  a  waltz. 

She  had  not  heeded  their  playing.  Now  she  said :  "  The 
music  is  over ;  we  must  not  be  late  at  lunch ; "  and  she 
stood  up  and  moved. 

He  sprang  to  his  legs  and  obediently  stepped  out:  "I 
shall  have  your  answer  to-day  ?  this  evening  ?     Nesta ! " 

"  Mr.  Barmby,  it  will  be  the  same.  You  will  be  kind  to 
me  in  not  asking  me  again." 

He  spoke  further.     She  was  dumb. 

Had  he  done  ill  or  well  for  himself  and  for  her  when  he 
named  the  shadow  on  her  parents  ?  He  dwelt  more  on  her 
than  on  himself  :  he  would  not  have  wounded  her  to  win  the 
blest  affirmative.  Could  she  have  been  entirely  ignorant  ? 
—  and  after  Dudley  Sowerby's  defection  ?  For  such  it 
was :  the  Hev.  Stuart  Rem  had  declared  the  union  between 
the  almost  designated  head  of  the  Cantor  family  and  a 


A  PAIR  OF  WOOEES  331 

young  person  of  no  name,  of  worse  tlian  no  birth,  impos- 
sible :  "  absolutely  and  totally  impossible,'^  he  had  said,  in 
his  impressive  fashion,  speaking  from  his  knowledge  of  the 
family  and  an  acquaintance  with  Dudley.  She  must  neces- 
sarily have  learnt  why  Dudley  Sowerby  withdrew.  No 
parents  of  an  attractive  daughter  should  allow  her  to  remain 
unaware  of  her  actual  position  in  the  world.  It  is  criminal, 
a  reduplication  of  the  criminality !  Yet  she  had  not  spoken 
as  one  astonished.  She  was  mysterious.  Women  are  so : 
young  women  most  of  all.  It  is  undecided  still  whether 
they  do  of  themselves  conceive  principles,  or  should  submit 
to  an  imposition  of  the  same  upon  them  in  terrorem.  — 
Mysterious  truly,  but  most  attractive  !  As  Lady  Bountiful 
of  a  district,  she  would  have  in  her  maturity  the  majestic 
stature  to  suit  a  dispensation  of  earthly  good  things.  And, 
strangely,  here  she  was,  at  this  moment,  rivalling  to  excel- 
ling all  others  of  her  sex  (he  verified  it  in  the  crowd  of 
female  faces  passing),  when  they,  if  they  but  knew  the 
facts,  would  visit  her  very  appearance  beside  them  on  a 
common  footing  as  an  intrusion  and  a  scandal.  To  us  who 
know,  such  matters  are  indeed  wonderful ! 

Moved  by  reflective  compassion,  Mr.  Barmby  resumed  the 
wooer's  note,  some  few  steps  after  he  had  responded  to  the 
salutation  of  Dartrey  Fenellan  and  Colonel  Sudley.  She 
did  not  speak.  She  turned  her  forehead  to  him;  and  the 
absence  of  the  world  from  her  eyes  chilled  his  tongue. 

He  declined  the  pleasure  of  the  lunch  with  the  Duvidney 
ladies.  He  desired  to  be  alone,  to  question  himself  fasting, 
to  sound  the  deed  he  had  done ;  for  he  had  struck  on  a 
suspicion  of  selfishness  in  it :  and  though  Love  must  needs 
be  an  egoism,  Love  is  no  warrant  for  the  doing  of  a  hurt  to 
the  creature  beloved.  Thoughts  upon  Skepsey  and  the  tale 
of  his  Matilda  Pridden's  labours  in  poor  neighbourhoods,  to 
which  he  had  been  inattentive  during  the  journey  down 
to  the  sea,  invaded  him ;  they  were  persistent.  He  was 
a  worthy  man,  having  within  him  the  spiritual  impulse 
curiously  ready  to  take  the  place  where  a  material  disap- 
pointment left  vacancy.  The  vulgar  sort  embrace  the  devil 
at  that  stage.  Before  the  day  had  sunk,  Mr.  Barmby's 
lowest  wish  was,  to  be  a  light,  as  the  instrument  of  his 
Church  in  her  ministrations  amid  the  haunts  of  sin  and 


332  ONE   OF  OUR   CONQUEROES 

slime,  to  such  plain  souls  as  Daniel  Skepsey  and  Matilda 
Pridden.  And  he  could  still  be  that,  if  Nesta,  in  the  chap- 
ters of  the  future,  changed  her  mind.  She  might ;  for  her 
good  she  would ;  he  reserved  the  hope.  His  light  was  one 
to  burn  beneath  an  extinguisher. 

At  the  luncheon  table  of  the  Duvidney  ladies,  it  was  a 
pain  to  Dorothea  and  Virginia  to  witness  how  poor  the 
appetite  their  Nesta  brought  in  from  the  briny  blowy  walk. 
They  prophesied  against  her  chances  of  a  good  sleep  at 
night,  if  she  did  not  eat  heartily.  Virginia  timidly  re- 
marked on  her  paleness.  Both  of  them  put  their  simple 
arts  in  motion  to  let  her  know,  that  she  was  dear  to  them  : 
so  dear  as  to  make  them  dread  the  hour  of  parting.  They 
named  their  dread  of  it.  They  had  consulted  in  private 
and  owned  to  one  another,  that  they  did  really  love  the 
child,  and  dared  not  look  forward  to  what  they  should  do 
without  her.  The  dear  child's  paleness  and  want  of  appe- 
tite (they  remembered  they  were  observing  a  weak  inno- 
cent girl)  suggested  to  them  mutually  the  idea  of  a  young 
female  heart  sickening,  for  the  old  unhappy  maiden  reason. 
But,  if  only  she  might  return  with  them  to  the  Wells,  the 
Eev.  Stuart  Eem  would  assure  her  to  convince  her  of  her 
not  being  quite  quite  forsaken.  He,  or  some  one  having 
sanction  from  Victor,  might  ultimately  (the  ladies  waiting 
anxiously  in  the  next  room,  to  fold  her  on  the  warmth  of 
their  bosoms  when  she  had  heard)  impart  to  her  the  knowl- 
edge of  circumstances,  which  would,  under  their  further 
tuition  concerning  the  particular  sentiments  of  great  fami- 
lies and  the  strict  duties  of  the  scions  of  the  race,  help 
to  account  for  and  excuse  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby's 
behaviour. 

They  went  up  to  the  drawing-room,  talking  of  Skepsey 
and  his  tale  of  Miss  Pridden,  for  Nesta's  amusement.  Any 
talk  of  her  Skepsey  usually  quickened  her  lips  to  reminis- 
cent smiles  and  speech.  Now  she  held  on  to  gazeing ;  and 
sadly,  it  seemed,  as  if  some  object  were  not  present. 

For  a  vague  encouragement,  Dorothea  said:  '^One  week, 
and  we  are  back  home  at  Moorsedge  !  '^  —  not  so  far  from 
Cronidge,  was  implied,  for  the  administering  of  some  foolish 
temporary  comfort.  And  it  was  as  when  a  fish  on  land 
springs  its  hollow  sides  in  alien  air  for  the  sustaining 


A  PAIR   OF   WOOERS  333 

element ;  the  girl  panted  ;  she  clasped  Dorothea's  hand  and 
looked  at  Virginia :  "  My  mother  —  I  must  see  her  ! ''  she 
said.  They  were  slightly  stupefied  by  the  unwonted  inention 
of  her  mother.  They  made  no  reply.  They  never  had  done 
so  when  there  was  allusion  to  her  mother.  Their  silence 
now  struck  a  gong  at  the  girl's  bosom. 

Dorothea  had  it  in  mind  to  say,  that  if  she  thirsted  for 
any  special  comfort,  the  friends  about  her  would  offer  con- 
solation for  confidence. 

Before  she  could  speak,  Perrin  the  footman  entered,  bear- 
ing the  card  of  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby. 

Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby  begged  for  an  immediate  interview 
with  Miss  Eadnor. 

The  ladies  were  somewhat  agitated,  but  no  longer  per- 
plexed as  to  their  duties.  They  had  quitted  Moorsedge  to 
avoid  the  visit  of  his  family.  If  he  followed,  it  signified 
that  which  they  could  not  withstand  :  —  '<  The  Tivoli  falls  !  " 
as  they  named  the  fateful  tremendous  human  passion,  from 
the  reminiscences  of  an  impressive  day  on  their  travels  in 
youth  ;  when  the  leaping  torrent  had  struck  upon  a  tale  of 
love  they  were  reading.  They  hurriedly  entreated  Nesta 
to  command  her  nerves  ;  peremptorily  requested  her  to  stay 
where  she  was;  showed  her  spontaneously,  by  way  of 
histrionic  adjuration,  the  face  to  be  worn  by  young  ladies 
at  greetings  on  these  occasions ;  kissed  her  and  left  her; 
Virginia  whispering  :  "  He  is  true  ! '' 

Dudley  entered  the  drawing-room,  charged  with  his  happy 
burden  of  a  love  that  had  passed  through  the  furnace.  She 
stood  near  a  window,  well  in  the  light;  she  hardly  gave 
him  welcome.  His  address  to  her  was  hurried,  rather  un- 
certain, coherent  enough  between  the  drop  and  the  catch  of 
articulate  syllables.  He  found  himself  holding  his  hat.  He 
placed  it  on  the  table,  and  it  rolled  foolishly ;  but  soon  he 
was  by  her  side,  having  two  free  hands  to  claim  her  one. 

"  You  are  thinking,  you  have  not  heard  from  me  !  I  have 
been  much  occupied,"  he  said.  '^  My  brother  is  ill,  very  ill. 
I  have  your  pardon  ? '' 

"  Indeed  you  have  —  if  it  has  to  be  asked." 

"I  have  it?" 

'^  Have  I  to  grant  it  ?  " 

"  I  own  to  remissness." 


334  ONE  OF  OUR  COHQUERORS 

*^I  did  not  blame  you." 

"Nesta!  .  .  ." 

Her  coldness  was  unshaken. 

He  repeated  the  call  of  her  name.  "  I  should  have 
written  —  I  ought  to  have  written  !  —  I  could  not  have  ex- 
pressed .  .  .  You  do  forgive  ?     So  many  things  !  " 

"  You  come  from  Cronidge  to-day  ?  " 

"  From  my  family  —  to  you." 

She  seemed  resentful.  His  omissions  as  a  correspondent 
were  explicable  in  a  sentence.     It  had  to  be  deferred. 

Eeviewing  for  a  moment  the  enormous  internal  conflict 
undergone  by  him  during  the  pei-iod  of  the  silence  between 
them,  he  wondered  at  the  vastness  of  the  love  which  had 
conquered  objections,  to  him  so  poignant. 

There  was  at  least  no  seeing  of  the  public  blot  on  her 
birth  wheu  looking  on  her  face.  Nor  when  thinking  of  the 
beauty  of  her  character,  in  absence  or  in  presence,  was  there 
any.  He  had  mastered  distaste  to  such  a  degree,  that  he 
forgot  the  assistance  he  had  received  from  the  heiress  for 
enabling  him  to  appreciate  the  fair  young  girl.  Money  is 
the  imperious  requirement  of  superior  station ;  and  more 
money  and  more  :  in  these  our  modern  days  of  the  merchant's 
wealth,  and  the  miner's,  and  the  gigantic  American  and 
Australian  millionaires,  high  rank  is  of  necessity  vowed,  in 
peril  of  utter  eclipse,  to  the  possession  of  money.  Still  it  is, 
when  assured,  a  consideration  far  to  the  rear  with  a  gentle- 
man in  whose  bosom  love  and  the  buzzing  world  have  fought 
their  battle  out.  He  could  believe  it  thoroughly  fought  out, 
by  the  prolonged  endurance  of  a  contest  lasting  many  days 
and  nights ;  in  the  midst  of  which,  at  one  time,  the  task  of 
writing  to  tell  her  of  his  withdrawal  from  the  engagement, 
was  the  cause  of  his  omission  to  write. 

As  to  her  character,  he  dwelt  on  the  charm  of  her  recovered 
features,  to  repress  an  indicative  dread  of  some  intrepid 
force  behind  it,  that  might  be  unfeminine,  however  gentle 
the  external  lineaments.  Her  features,  her  present  aris- 
tocratic deficiency  of  colour,  greatly  pleased  him ;  her 
character  would  submit  to  moulding.  Of  all  young  ladies 
in  the  world,  she  should  be  the  one  to  shrink  from  a  mental 
independence  and  hold  to  the  guidance  of  the  man  ennobling 
her.    Did  she  ?    Her  eyes  were  reading  him.     She  had  her 


,    A  PAIR  OF   WOOERS  336 

father's  limpid  eyes,  and  when  they  concentrated  rays,  they 
shot. 

"  Have  you  seen  my  parents,  Mr.  Sowerby  ?  " 

He  answered  smilingly,  for  reassuringly :  "  I  have  seen 
them." 

"  My  mother  ?  " 

"  From  your  mother  first.     But  am  I  not  to  be  Dudley  ?  " 

''  She  spoke  to  you  ?     She  told  you  ?  " 

"And  yesterday  your  father  —  a  second  time." 

Some  remainder  of  suspicion  in  the  dealing  with  members 
of  this  family,  urged  Dudley  to  say :  "  I  understood  from 
them,  you  were  not  ?  .  .  .  that  you  were  quite  ?  .  .  . " 

"  I  have  heard :  I  have  guessed  :  it  was  recently  —  this 
morning,  as  it  happened.  I  wish  to  go  to  my  mother  to-day. 
I  shall  go  to  her  to-morrow." 

"  I  might  offer  to  conduct  you  —  now  !  " 

"  You  are  kind ;  I  have  Skepsey."  She  relieved  the 
situation  of  its  cold-toned  strain  in  adding :  "  He  is  a 
host." 

"  But  I  may  come  ?  —  now  !  Have  I  not  the  right  ? 
You  do  not  deny  it  me  ?  " 

'^  You  are  very  generous." 

"  I  claim  the  right,  then.  Always.  And  subsequently, 
soon  after,  my  mother  hopes  to  welcome  you  at  Cronidge. 
She  will  be  glad  to  hear  of  your  naming  of  a  day.  My 
father  bids  me  ...  he  and  all  our  family." 

"  They  are  very  generous." 

"I  may  send  them  word  this  evening  of  a  day  you 
name  ?  " 

"  No,  Mr.  Sowerby." 

"Dudley?" 

"I  cannot  say  it.     I  have  to  see  my  parents." 

"  Between  us,  surely  ?  " 

"My  whole  heart  thanks  you  for  your  goodness  to  me, 
I  am  unable  to  say  more." 

He  had  again  observed  and  he  slightly  crisped  under  the 
speculative  look  she  directed  on  him :  a  simple  unstrained 
look,  that  had  an  air  of  reading  right  in,  and  was  worse  to 
bear  with  than  when  the  spark  leaped  upon  some  thought 
from  her  eyes :  though  he  had  no  imagination  of  anything 
he  concealed  or  exposed,  and  he  would  have  set  it  down  to 


836  ONE  OF  OUB  COXQUEROBS 

her  temporary  incredulousness  of  liis  perfect  generosity  or 
power  to  overcome  the  world's  opinion  of  certain  circum- 
stances. That  had  been  a  struggle  !  The  peculiar  look  was 
not  renewed.  She  spoke  warmly  of  her  gratitude.  She 
stated,  that  she  must  of  necessity  see  her  parents  at  once. 
She  submitted  to  his  entreaty  to  conduct  her  to  them  on 
the  morrow.  It  was  in  the  manner  of  one  who  yielded 
step  by  step,  from  inability  to  contend. 

Her  attitude  continuing  unchanged,  he  became  sensible 
of  a  monotony  in  the  speech  with  which  he  assailed  it,  and 
he  rose  to  leave,  not  dissatisfied.  She,  at  his  urgent  request, 
named  her  train  for  London  in  the  early  morning.  He  said 
it  was  not  too  early.  He  would  have  desired  to  be  warmed ; 
yet  he  liked  her  the  better  for  the  moral  sentiment  con- 
trolling the  physical.  He  had  appointments  with  relatives 
or  connections  in  the  town,  and  on  that  pretext  he  departed, 
hoping  for  the  speedy  dawn  of  the  morrow  as  soon  as  he 
had  turned  his  back  on  the  house. 

No,  not  he  the  man  to  have  pity  of  women  underfoot !  — 
That  was  the  thought,  unrevolved,  unphrased,  all  but  un- 
conscious, in  Nesta:  and  while  her  heart  was  exalting  him 
for  his  generosity.  Under  her  present  sense  of  the  chilling 
shadow,  she  felt  the  comfort  there  was  in  being  grateful  to 
him  for  the  golden  beams  which  his  generosity  cast  about 
her.  But  she  had  an  intelligence  sharp  to  pierce,  virgin 
though  she  was;  and  with  the  mark  in  sight,  however 
distant,  she  struck  it,  unerring  as  an  Artemis  for  blood  of 
beasts :  those  shrewd  young  wits,  on  the  look-out  to  find  a 
champion,  athirst  for  help  upon  a  desolate  road,  were  hard 
as  any  judicial  to  pronounce  the  sentence  upon  Dudley  in 
that  respect.  She  raised  him  high  ;  she  placed  herself  low  ; 
she  had  a  glimpse  of  the  struggle  he  had  gone  through; 
love  of  her  had  helped  him,  she  believed.  And  she  was 
melted ;  and  not  the  less  did  the  girl's  implacable  intuition 
read  with  the  keenness  of  eye  of  a  man  of  the  world  the 
blunt  division  in  him,  where  warm  humanity  stopped  short 
at  the  wall  of  social  concrete  forming  a  part  of  this  rightly 
esteemed  young  citizen.  She,  too,  was  divided :  she  was  at 
his  feet ;  and  she  rebuked  herself  for  daring  to  judge  —  or 
rather,  it  was,  for  having  a  reserve  in  her  mind  upon  a  man 
proving  so  generous  with  her.     She  was  pulled   this  way 


A  PAIR  OP  WOOEES  337 

and  that  by  sensibilities  both  inspiring  to  blind  gratitude 
and  quickening  her  penetrative  view.  The  certainty  of  an 
unerring  perception  remained. 

Dorothea  and  Virginia  were  seated  in  the  room  below, 
waiting  for  their  carriage,  when  the  hall-door  spoke  of  the 
Hon.  Dudley's  departure ;  soon  after,  Nesta  entered  to 
them.  She  swam  up  to  Dorothea's  lap,  and  dropped  her 
head  on  it,  kneeling. 

The  ladies  feared  she  might  be  weeping.  Dorothea 
patted  her  thick  brown  twisted  locks  of  hair.  Unhappiness 
following  such  an  interview,  struck  them  as  an  ill  sign. 

Virginia  bent  to  the  girl's  ear,  and  murmured:  "All 
well  ?  " 

She  replied:  *^He  has  been  very  generous.'* 

Her  speaking  of  the  words  renewed  an  oppression  that 
had  darkened  her  on  the  descent  of  stairs.  Eor  sensibilities 
sharp  as  Kesta's,  are  not  to  be  had  without  their  penalties : 
and  she  who  had  gone  nigh  to  summing  in  a  flash  the 
nature  of  Dudley,  sank  suddenly  under  that  affliction  often 
besetting  the  young  adventurous  mind,  crushing  to  young 
women :  —  the  fascination  exercised  upon  them  by  a  positive 
adverse  masculine  attitude  and  opinion.  Young  men  know 
well  what  it  is  :  and  if  young  women  have  by  chance  over- 
come their  timidity,  to  the  taking  of  any  step  out  of  the 
trim  pathway,  they  shrink,  with  a  sense  of  forlornest  isola- 
tion. It  becomes  a  subjugation;  inciting  to  revolt,  but  a 
heavy  weight  to  cast  off.  Soon  it  assumed  its  material 
form  for  the  contention  between  her  and  Dudley,  in  the 
figure  of  Mrs.  Marsett.  The  Nesta  who  had  been  instructed 
to  know  herself  to  be  under  a  shadow,  heard,  she  almost 
justified  Dudley's  reproaches  to  her,  for  having  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  unhappy  woman,  for  having  visited  her, 
for  having  been,  though  but  for  a  minute,  at  the  mercy  of 
a  coarse  gentleman's  pursuit.  The  recollection  was  a  smart 
buffet. 

Her  lighted  mind  punished  her  thus  through  her  conjuring 
of  Dudley's  words,  should  news  of  her  relations  with  Mrs. 
Marsett  reach  him:  —  and  she  would  have  to  tell  him. 
Would  he  not  say:  "I  have  borne  with  the  things  concerning 
your  family.  All  the  greater  reason  why  I  must  insist  .  .  ." 
he  would  assuredly  say  he  insisted  (her  humour  caught  at 

22 


338  ONE  OP  OTJE  COKQUEROES 

the  word,  as  being  the  very  word  one  could  foresee  and 
clearly  see  him  uttering  in  a  fit  of  vehemence)  on  her  im- 
mediate abandonment  of  "that  woman.'' 

And  with  Nesta's  present  enlightenment  by  dusky  beams, 
upon  her  parentage,  she  listened  abjectly  to  Dudley,  or  the 
opinion  of  the  majority.  Would  he  not  say  or  think,  that  her 
clinging  to  Mrs.  Marsett  put  them  under  a  kind  of  common 
stamp,  or  gave  the  world  its  option  to  class  them  together  ? 

These  were  among  the  ideas  chasing  in  a  head  destined 
to  be  a  battle-field  for  the  enrichment  of  a  harvest-field  of 
them,  while  the  girl's  face  was  hidden  on  Dorothea's  lap, 
and  her  breast  heaved  and  heaved. 

She  distressed  them  wlien  she  rose,  by  saying  she  must 
instantly  see  her  mother. 

They  saw  the  pain  their  hesitation  inflicted,  and  Dorothea 
said :  '*  Yes,  dear ;  any  day  you  like." 

"  To-morrow  —  I  must  go  to  her  to-morrow ! " 

A  suggestion  of  her  mother's  coming  down,  was  faintly 
spoken  by  one  lady,  echoed  in  a  quaver  by  the  other. 

Nesta  shook  her  head.  To  quiet  the  kind  souls,  she  en- 
treated them  to  give  their  promise  that  they  would  invite 
her  again. 

Imagining  the  Hon.  Dudley  to  have  cast  her  off,  both 
ladies  embraced  her :  not  entirely  yielding-up  their  hearts 
to  her,  by  reason  of  the  pernicious  new  ideas  now  in  the 
world  to  sap  our  foundations  of  morality;  which  warned 
them  of  their  duty  to  uphold  mentally  his  quite  justifiable 
behaviour,  even  when  compassionating  the  sufferings  of  the 
guiltless  creature  loved  by  them. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

CONTAINS    DEEDS    UNRELATED   AND    EXPOSITIONS   OF 
FEELINGS 

All  through  the  afternoon  and  evening  Skepsey  showed 
indifference  to  meals  by  continuing  absent :  and  he  was  the 
one  with  whom  Nesta  would  have  felt  at  home ;  more  at 
home  than  with  her  parents.     He  and  the  cool  world  he 


EXPOSITIONS   OF  FEELINGS  339 

moved  in  were  a  transparency  of  peace  to  lier  mind ;  even 
to  his  giving  of  some  portion  of  it,  when  she  had  the  dear 
little  man  present  to  her  in  a  vivid  image  of  a  fish  in  a  glass- 
globe,  wandering  round  and  round,  now  and  then  shooting 
across,  just  as  her  Skepsey  did :  he  carried  his  head  semi- 
horizontally  at  his  arrowy  pace ;  plain  to  read  though  he 
was,  he  appeared,  under  that  image  created  of  him,  animated 
by  motives  inducing  to  speculation. 

She  thought  of  him  till  she  could  have  reproached  him 
for  not  returning  and  helping  her  to  get  away  from  the 
fever  of  other  thoughts  :  —  this  anguish  twisting  about  her 
parents,  and  the  dreadful  trammels  of  gratitude  to  a  man 
afflictingly  generous,  the  frown  of  congregated  people. 

The  latter  was  the  least  of  evils ;  she  had  her  charges  to 
bring  against  them  for  injustice :  uncited,  unstirred  charges, 
they  were  effective  as  a  muffled  force  to  sustain  her :  and 
the  young  who  are  of  healthy  lively  blood  and  clean  con- 
science have  either  emotion  or  imagination  to  fold  them  de- 
fensively from  an  enemy  world ;  whose  power  to  drive  them 
forth  into  the  wilderness  they  acknowledge.  But  in  the 
wilderness  their  souls  are  not  beaten  down  by  breath  of 
mortals;  they  burn  straight  flame  there  up  to  the  parent, 
Spirit. 

She  could  not  fancy  herself  flying  thither ;  —  where  to 
be  shorn  and  naked  and  shivering  is  no  hardship,  for  the 
solitude  clothes,  and  the  sole  true  life  in  us  resolves  to  that 
steady  flame ;  —  she  was  restrained  by  Dudley's  generosity, 
which  held  her  fast  to  have  the  forgiveness  for  her  uncom- 
mitted sin  dashed  in  her  face.  He  surprised  her ;  the  un- 
expected quality  in  him  seemed  suddenly  to  have  snared 
her  fast :  and  she  did  not  obtain  release  after  seeing  behind 
it ;  —  seeing  it,  by  the  light  of  what  she  demanded,  per- 
sonal, shallow,  a  lover's  generosity.  So  her  keen  intellect 
saw  it;  and  her  young  blood  (for  the  youthful  are  thus 
divided)  thrilled  in  thinking  it  must  be  love  !  The  name 
of  the  sacred  passion  lifted  it  out  of  the  petty  cabin  of  the 
individual  into  a  quiring  cathedral  universal,  and  subdued 
her.  It  subdued  her  with  an  unwelcome  touch  of  tender- 
ness when  she  thought  of  it  as  involving  tenderness  for  her 
mother,  some  chivalrous  respect  for  her  mother.  Could  he 
love  the  daughter  without  some  little,  which  a  more  inti- 


340       •  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

mate  knowledge  of  Iier  dear  mother  would  enlarge  ?  The 
girPs  heart  flew  to  her  mother,  clung  to  her,  vindicated  her 
dumbly.  It  would  not  inquire,  and  it  refused  to  hear, 
hungering  the  while.  She  sent  forth  her  flights  of  stories 
in  elucidation  of  the  hidden;  and  they  were  like  white  bird 
after  bird  winging  to  covert  beneath  a  thundercloud ;  until 
her  breast  ached  for  the  voice  of  the  thunder :  harsh  facts : 
sure  as  she  was  of  her  never  losing  her  filial  hold  of  the 
beloved.  She  and  her  mother  grew  together,  they  were 
one.  Accepting  the  shadow,  they  were  the  closer  one  be- 
neath it.  She  had  neither  vision  nor  active  thought  of  her 
father,  in  whom  her  pride  was. 

At  the  hour  of  ten,  the  ladies  retired  for  the  enjoyment 
of  their  sweet  reward.  Manton,  their  maid,  came  down  to 
sit  with  Nesta  on  the  watch  for  Skepsey.  Perrin,  the  foot- 
man, returning,  as  late  as  twenty  minutes  to  eleven,  from 
his  tobacco  promenade  along  the  terrace,  reported  to  Manton 
"a  row  in  town;"  and  he  repeated  to  Nesta  the  police- 
man's opinion  and  his  own  of  the  ^'  Army ''  fellows,  and  the 
way  to  treat  them.     Both  were  for  rigour. 

"  The  name  of  '  Army '  attracts  poor  Skepsey  so,  I  am  sure 
he  would  join  it,  if  they  would  admit  him,"  Nesta  said. 

"He  has  an  immense  respect  for  a  young  woman,  who 
belongs  to  his  ^  Army  ; '  and  one  does  n't  know  what  may 
have  come,"  said  Manton. 

Two  or  three  minutes  after  eleven,  a  feeble  ring  at  the 
bell  gained  admission  for  some  person;  whispering  was 
heard  in  the  passage.  Manton  played  eavesdropper,  and 
suddenly  bursting  on  Skepsey,  arrested  him  when  about  to 
dash  upstairs.  His  young  mistress's  voice  was  a  sufficient 
command ;  he  yielded ;  he  pitched  a  smart  sigh  and  stepped 
into  her  presence  for  his  countenance  to  be  seen,  or  the 
show  of  a  countenance,  that  it  presented. 

"  Skepsey  wanted  to  rush  to  bed  without  saying  good 
night  to  me  ? "  said  she ;  leaving  unnoticed,  except  for 
woefulness  of  tone,  his  hurried  shuffle  of  remarks  on  •'  his 
appearance,"  and  "  little  accidents ; "  ending  with  an  in- 
clination of  his  disgraceful  person  to  the  doorway,  and  a 
petition :  "  If  I  might,  Miss  Nesta  ?  "  The  implied  pathetic 
reference  to  a  surgically-treated  nose  under  a  cross  of  strips 
of  plaster,  could  not  obtain  dismissal  for  him.     And  he  had 


EXPOSITIONS  OF  FEELINGS  341 

one  eye  of  sinister  hue,  showing  beside  its  lighted-grey 
fellow  as  if  a  sullen  punished  dragon-whelp  had  couched 
near  some  quick  wood-pigeon.  The  two  eyes  blinked  rap- 
idly. He  was  a  picture  of  Guilt  in  the  nude,  imploring  to 
be  sent  into  concealment. 

The  cruelty  of  detaining  him  was  evident. 

"Yes,  if  you  must,"  Nesta  said.  ''But,  dear  Skepsey, 
will  it  be  the  magistrate  again  to-morrow  ?  " 

He  feared  it  would  be ;  he  fancied  it  would  needs  be.  He 
concluded  by  stating,  that  he  was  bound  to  appear  before 
the  magistrate  in  the  morning ;  and  he  begged  assistance  to 
keep  it  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Miss  Duvidneys,  who  had 
been  so  kind  to  him. 

"  Has  there  been  bailing  of  you  again,  Skepsey  ?  " 

"  A  good  gentleman,  a  resident,"  he  replied ;  '^  a  military 
gentleman  ;  indeed,  a  colonel  of  the  cavalry  ;  but,  it  may  so 
be,  retired ;  and  anxious  about  our  vast  possessions  ;  though 
he  thinks  a  translation  of  a  French  attack  on  England  un- 
important.    He  says,  the  Germans  despise  us  most." 

"  Then  this  gentleman  thinks  you  have  a  good  case  ?  " 

"  He  is  a  friend  of  Captain  Dartrey's." 

Hearing  that  name,  Kesta  said  :  "Now,  Skepsey,  you  must 
tell  me  everything.  You  are  not  to  mind  your  looks.  I 
believe,  I  do  always  believe  you  mean  welL" 

"  Miss  Nesta,  it  depends  upon  the  magistrate's  not  being 
prejudiced  against  the  street-processionists." 

"But  you  may  expect  justice  from  the  magistrate,  if  your 
case  is  good  ?  " 

"  I  would  not  say  no.  Miss  Nesta.  But  we  find,  the  opinion 
of  the  public  has  its  effect  with  magistrates  —  their  sen- 
tences. They  are  severe  on  boxing.  They  have  latterly 
treated  the  '  Army  '  with  more  consideration,  owing  to  the 
change  in  the  public  view.     I  myself  have  changed." 

"  Have  you  joined  it  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  say  I  am  a  member  of  it." 

"You  walked  in  the  ranks  to-day,  and  you  were  mal- 
treated ?     Your  friend  was  there  ?  " 

"  I  walked  with  Matilda  Pridden  ;  that  is,  parallel,  along 
the  pavement." 

"  I  hope  she  came  out  of  it  unhurt  ?  " 

"  It  is  thanks  to  Captain  Dartrey,  Miss  Nesta.'' 


342  ONE  OF  OUR  COiTQUEROES 

This  time  ISTesta  looked  her  question. 

Manton  interposed  :  "  You  are  to  speak,  Mr.  Skepsey  ; " 
and  she  stopped  a  flood  of  narrative,  that  was  knocking  in 
his  mind  to  feel  its  head  and  to  leap  —  an  uninterrupted 
half-minute  more  would  have  shaped  the  story  for  the 
proper  flow. 

He  began,  after  attending  to  the  throb  of  his  bruises  in  a 
manner  to  correct  them  rather  than  solace  ;  and  the  begin- 
ning was  the  end :  "  Captain  Dartrey  rescued  us,  before 
Matilda  Pridden  suffered  harm,  to  mention  —  the  chin,  slight, 
teeth  unshaken ;  a  beautiful  set.  She  is  angry  with  Captain 
Dartrey,  for  having  recourse  to  violence  in  her  defence  :  it  is 
against  her  principles.  ^  Then  you  die,'  she  says  ;  and  our 
principles  are  to  gain  more  by  death.  She  says,  we  are  alive 
in  them  ;  but  worse  if  we  abandon  them  for  the  sake  of 
living. — I  am  a  little  confused;  she  is  very  abstruse. — 
Because,  that  is  the  corruptible  life,  she  says.  I  have  found 
it  quite  impossible  to  argue  with  her;  she  has  always  a 
complete  answer ;  wonderful.  In  case  of  Invasion,  we  are 
to  lift  our  voices  to  the  Lord ;  and  the  Lord's  will  shall  be 
manifested.  If  we  are  robbed,  we  ask,  How  came  we  by  the 
goods  ?  It  is  unreasonable ;  it  strikes  at  rights  of  property. 
But  I  have  to  go  on  thinking.  When  in  danger,  she  sings 
without  excitement.  When  the  blow  struck  her,  she  stopped 
singing  only  an  instant.  She  says,  no  one  fears,  who  has 
real  faith.  She  will  not  let  me  call  her  brave.  She  cannot 
admire  Captain  Dartrey.  Her  principles  are  opposed.  She 
said  to  him,  *  Sir,  you  did  what  seemed  to  you  right.'  She 
thinks  every  blow  struck  sends  us  back  to  the  state  of  the 
beasts.     Her  principles  .  .  ." 

"  How  was  it  Captain  Dartrey  happened  to  be  present, 
Skepsey  ?  " 

"  She  is  very  firm.  You  cannot  move  her.  —  Captain 
Dartrey  was  on  his  way  to  the  station,  to  meet  a  gentleman 
from  London,  Miss  Nesta.  He  carried  a  stick  —  a  remark- 
able stick  —  he  had  shown  to  me  in  the  morning,  and  he  has 
given  it  me  now.  He  says,  he  has  done  his  last  with  it. 
He  seems  to  have  some  of  Matilda  Pridden's  ideas  about 
fighting,  when  it's  over.  He  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  the 
stick,  he  said." 

"  But  who  attacked  you  ?    What  were  the  people  ?  " 


EXPOSITIONS  OF  FEELINGS  343 

"  Captain  Dartrey  says,  England  may  hold  up  her  head 
while  she  breeds  young  women  like  Matilda  Pridden :  — right 
or  wrong,  he  says  :  it  is  the  substance/' 

Hereupon  Manton,  sick  of  Miss  Pridden,  shook  the  little 
man  with  a  snappish  word,  to  bring  him  to  attention.  She 
got  him  together  sufficiently  for  him  to  give  a  lame  version 
of  the  story ;  flat  until  he  came  to  his  heroine's  behaviour, 
when  he  brightened  a  moment,  and  he  sank  back  absorbed 
in  her  principles  and  theories  of  life.  It  was  understood  by 
Nesta,  that  the  processionists,  going  at  a  smart  pace,  found 
their  way  blocked  and  were  assaulted  in  one  of  the  side- 
streets  ;  and  that  Skepsey  rushed  to  the  defence  of  Matilda 
Pridden ;  and  that,  while  they  were  engaged,  Captain  Dartrey 
was  passing  at  the  end  of  the  street,  and  recognized  one  he 
knew  in  the  thick  of  it  and  getting  the  worst  of  it,  owing  to 
numbers.  "  I  will  show  you  the  stick  he  did  it  with.  Miss 
Nesta,''  said  Skepsey,  regardless  of  narrative ;  and  darted 
out  of  the  room  to  bring  in  the  Demerara  supple-jack; 
holding  which,  he  became  inspired  to  relate  something  of 
Captain  Dartrey's  deeds. 

They  gave  no  pleasure  to  his  young  lady,  as  he  sadly 
perceived :  —  thus  it  is  with  the  fair  sex  ever,  so  fond  of 
heroes  !  She  shut  her  eyes  from  the  sight  of  the  Demerara 
supple-jack  descending  right  and  left  upon  the  skulls  of  a 
couple  of  bully  lads.  "  That  will  do  —  you  were  rescued. 
And  now  go  to  bed,  Skepsey ;  and  be  up  at  seven  to  break- 
fast with  me,"  Nesta  said,  for  his  battle-damaged  face  would 
be  more  endurable  to  behold  after  an  interval,  she  hoped ; 
and  she  might  in  the  morning  dissociate  its  evil  look  from 
the  deeds  of  Captain  Dartrey. 

The  thought  of  her  hero  taking  active  part  in  a  street- 
fray,  was  repulsive  to  her  ;  it  swamped  his  brilliancy.  And 
this  distressed  her,  by  withdrawing  the  support  which  the 
thought  of  him  had  been  to  her  since  midday.  She  lay  for 
sleepless  hours,  while  nursing  a  deeper  pain,  under  oppres- 
sion of  repugnance  to  battle-dealing,  blood-shedding  men. 
It  was  long  before  she  grew  mindful  of  the  absurdity  of  the 
moan  recurring  whenever  reflection  wearied.  Translated 
into  speech,  it  would  have  run  :  "  In  a  street  of  the  town  ! 
with  a  stick  ! "  —  The  vulgar  picture  pursued  her  to  humilia- 
tion ;  it  robbed  her  or  dimmed  her  possession  of  the  one 


844  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEORS 

bright  thing  she  had  remaining  to  her.  So  she  deemed  it 
during  the  heavy  sighs  of  night ;  partly  conscious,  that  in 
some  strange  way  it  was  as  much  as  tossing  her  to  the  man 
who  never  could  have  condescended  to  the  pugnacious  using 
of  a  stick  in  a  street.  He,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  cover  to 
the  shame-faced. 

Her  heart  was  weak  that  night.  She  hovered  above  it, 
but  not  so  detached  as  to  scorn  it  for  fawning  to  one  —  any 
one  —  who  would  offer  her  and  her  mother  a  cover  from 
scorn.  And  now  she  exalted  Dudley's  generosity,  now 
clung  to  a  low  idea  of  a  haven  in  her  father's  wealth;  and 
she  was  unaware,  that  the  second  mood  was  deduced  from 
the  first.  She  did  know  herself  cowardly :  she  had,  too,  a 
critic  in  her  clear  head,  to  spurn  at  the  creature  who  could 
think  of  purchasing  the  world's  respect.  Dudley's  gener- 
osity sprang  up  to  silence  the  voice.  She  could  praise  him, 
on  a  review  of  it,  for  delicacy,  moreover ;  and  the  delicacy 
laid  her  under  a  more  positive  obligation.  Her  sense  of  it 
was  not  without  a  toneless  quaint  faint  savour  of  the 
romantic,  that  her  humour  little  humorously  caught  at,  to 
paint  her  a  picture  of  former  heroes  of  fiction,  who  win 
their  trying  lady  by  their  perfection  of  good  conduct  on  a 
background  of  high  birth;  and  who  are  not  seen  to  be 
wooden  before  the  volume  closes.  Her  fatigue  of  sleepless- 
ness plunged  her  into  the  period  of  poke-bonnets  and  peaky 
hats  to  admire  him ;  giving  her  the  kind  of  sweetness  we 
may  imagine  ourselves  to  get  in  the  state  of  tired  horse 
munching  hay.  If  she  had  gone  to  her  bed  with  a  noble 
or  simply  estimable  plain  image  of  one  of  her  friends  in  her 
heart,  to  sustain  it,  she  would  not  have  been  thus  abject. 
Skepsey's  discoloured  eye,  and  Captain  Dartrey's  behaviour 
behind  it,  threw  her  upon  Dudley's  generosity,  as  being  the 
shield  for  an  outcast.  Girls,  who  see  at  a  time  of  need  their 
ideal  extinguished  in  its  appearing  tarnished,  are  very  much 
at  the  disposal  of  the  pressing  suitor.  Nesta  rose  in  the 
black  winter  morn,  summoning  the  best  she  could  think  of 
to  glorify  Dudley,  that  she  might  not  feel  so  doomed. 

According  to  an  agreement  overnight,  she  went  to  the 
bedroom  of  Dorothea  and  Virginia,  to  assure  them  of  her 
having  slept  well,  and  say  the  good-bye  to  them  and  their 
Tasso.     The  little  dog  was  the  growl  of  a  silken  ball  in 


EXPOSITIONS  OF  FEELINGS  345 

a  basket.  His  mistresses  excused  him,  because  of  his 
being  unused  to  the  appearance  of  any  person  save  Manton 
in  their  bedroom.  Dorothea,  kissing  her,  said:  '^ Adieu, 
dear  child ;  and  there  is  home  with  us  always,  remember. 
And,  after  breakfast,  however  it  may  be,  you  will,  for  our 
greater  feeling  of  security,  have  —  she  has  our  orders  — • 
Manton  —  your  own  maid  we  consider  too  young  for  a 
guardian  —  to  accompany  you.  We  will  not  have  it  on 
our  consciences,  that  by  any  possibility  harm  came  to  you 
while  you  were  under  our  charge.  The  good  innocent  girl 
we  received  from  the  hand  of  your  father,  we  return  to 
him;  we  are  sure  of  that." 

^NTesta  said :  "  Mr.  Sowerby  promised  he  would  come." 

"  However  it  may  be,"  Dorothea  repeated  her  curtaining 
phrase. 

Virginia  put  in  a  word  of  apology  for  Tasso's  temper : 
he  enjoyed  ordinarily  a  slumber  of  half  an  hour^s  longer 
duration.  He  was,  Dorothea  feelingly  added,  regularity 
itself.  Virginia  murmured  :  "  Except  once  !  "  and  both 
were  appalled  by  the  recollection  of  that  night.  It  had, 
nevertheless,  caused  them  to  reperuse  the  Kev.  Stuart 
Kern's  published  beautiful  sermon  Ox  Dirt  ;  the  words  of 
which  were  an  antidote  to  the  night  of  Tasso  in  the  nostrils 
of  Mnemosyne  ;  so  that  Dorothea  could  reply  to  her  sister, 
slightly  by  way  of  a  reproval,  quoting  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  at 
his  loftiest :  "  '  Let  us  not  bring  into  the  sacred  precincts 
Dirt  from  the  roads,  but  have  a  care  to  spread  it  where  it 
is  a  fructification.' "  Virginia  produced  the  sequent  sen- 
tence, likewise  weighty.  Nesta  stood  between  the  thin 
division  of  their  beds,  her  right  hand  given  to  one,  her 
left  to  the  other.  They  had  the  semblance  of  a  haven  out 
of  storms. 

She  reflected,  after  shutting  the  door  of  their  room,  that 
the  residing  with  them  had  been  a  means  of  casting  her  — 
it  was  an  effort  to  remember  how  —  upon  the  world  where 
the  tree  of  knowledge  grows.  She  had  eaten;  and  she 
might  be  the  worse  for  it ;  but  she  was  raised  to  a  height 
that  would  not  let  her  look  with  envy  upon  peace  and  com- 
fort. Luxurious  quiet  people  were  as  ripening  glass-house 
fruits.  Her  bitter  gathering  of  the  knowledge  of  life  had 
sharpened  her  intellect;   and  the  intellect,  even  in  the 


S46  ONE  OF  OTTR  CONQUEROES 

young,  is,  and  not  less  usefully,  hard  metal  rather  than 
fallow  soil.  But  for  the  fountain  of  human  warmth  at  her 
breast,  she  might  have  been  snared  by  the  conceit  of  intel- 
lect, to  despise  the  simple  and  conventional,  or  shed  the 
pity  which  is  charity's  contempt.  She  had  only  to  think 
of  the  kindness  of  the  dear  good  ladies  ;  her  heart  jumped 
to  them  at  once.  And  when  she  fancied  hearing  those 
innocent  souls  of  women  embracing  her  and  reproaching 
her  for  the  knowledge  of  life  she  now  bore,  her  words 
down  deep  in  her  bosom  were :  It  has  helped  me  to  bear 
the  shock  of  other  knowledge !  How  would  she  have 
borne  it  before  she  knew  of  the  infinitely  evil  ?  Saving 
for  the  tender  compassion  weeping  over  her  mother,  she 
had  not  much  acute  personal  grief. 

For  this  world  condemning  her  birth,  was  the  world 
tolerant  of  that  infinitely  evil !  Her  intellect  fortified  her 
to  be  combative  by  day,  after  the  night  of  imagination ; 
which  splendid  power  is  not  so  serviceable  as  the  logical 
mind  in  painful  seasons :  for  night  revealed  the  world  snort- 
ing Dragon's  breath  at  a  girl  guilty  of  knowing  its  vilest. 
More  than  she  liked  to  recall,  it  had  driven  her  scorched, 
half  withered,  to  the  shelter  of  Dudley.  The  daylight, 
spreading  thin  at  the  windows,  restored  her  from  that 
weakness.  "  We  will  quit  England,"  she  said,  thinking  of 
her  mother  and  herself,  and  then  of  her  father's  surely 
following  them.  She  sighed  thankfully,  half  way  through 
the  breakfast  with  Skepsey,  at  sight  of  the  hour  by  the 
clock ;  she  was  hurriedly  sentient  of  the  puzzle  of  her 
feelings,  when  she  guessed  at  a  chance  that  Dudley  would 
be  delayed.  She  supposed  herself  as  possibly  feeling  not 
so  well  able  to  keep  every  thought  of  her  head  brooding 
on  her  mother  in  Dudley's  company. 

Skepsey 's  face  was  just  sufferable  by  light  of  day,  if' one 
pitied  reflecting  on  his  honest  intentions ;  it  ceased  to  dis- 
colour another.  He  dropped  a  few  particulars  of  his  hero 
in  action ;  but  the  heroine  eclipsed.  He  was  heavier  than 
ever  with  his  Matilda  Pridden.  At  the  hour  for  departure, 
Perrin  had  a  conveyance  at  the  door.  Nesta  sent  off 
Skepsey  with  a  complimentary  message  to  Captain  Dartrey. 
Her  maid  Mary  begged  her  to  finish  her  breakfast ;  Manton 
suggested  the  waiting  a  further  two  or  three  minutes. 


EXPOSITIONS   OF  FEELINGS  847 

"  We  must  not  be  late,"  Nesta  said ;  and  when  the  minute- 
hand  of  the  clock  marked  ample  time  for  the  drive  to  the 
station,  she  took  her  seat  and  started,  keeping  her  face 
resolutely  set  seaward,  having  at  her  ears  the  ring  of  a  cry 
that  was  to  come  from  Manton.  But  Mauton  was  dumb ; 
she  spied  no  one  on  the  pavement  who  signalled  to  stop 
them.  And  no  one  was  at  the  station  to  greet  them.  They 
stepped  into  a  carriage  where  they  were  alone.  Dudley 
with  his  dreaded  generosity  melted  out  of  ]S"esta's  thoughts, 
like  the  vanishing  steam-wreath  on  the  dip  between  the 
line  and  the  downs. 

She  passed  into  music,  as  she  always  did  under  motion 
of  carriages  and  trains,  whether  in  happiness  or  sadness: 
and  the  day  being  one  that  had  a  sky,  the  scenic  of  music 
swung  her  up  to  soar.  None  of  her  heavy  burdens  en- 
chained, though  she  knew  the  weight  of  them,  with  those 
of  other  painful  souls.  The  pipeing  at  her  breast  gave 
wings  to  large  and  small  of  the  visible ;  and  along  the 
downs  went  stateliest  of  flowing  dances  ;  a  copse  lengthened 
to  forest;  a  pool  of  cattle-water  caught  gray  for  flights 
through  enchantment.  Cottage-children,  wherever  seen  in 
groups,  she  wreathed  above  with  angels  to  watch  them. 
Her  mind  all  the  while  was  busy  upon  earth,  embracing 
her  mother,  eyeing  her  father.  Imagination  and  our  earthly 
met  midway,  and  still  she  flew,  until  she  was  brought  to  the 
ground  by  a  shot.  She  struggled  to  rise,  uplifting  Judith 
Marsett :  a  woman  not  so  very  much  older  than  her  own 
teens,  in  the  count  of  years,  and  ages  older ;  and  the  world 
pulling  at  her  heels  to  keep  her  low.  That  unhappiest  had 
no  one  but  a  sisterly  girl  to  help  her :  and  how  she  clung 
to  the  slender  help !     Who  else  was  there  ? 

The  good  and  the  bad  in  the  woman  struck  separate  blows 
upon  the  girl's  resonant  nature.  She  perceived  the  good, 
and  took  it  into  her  reflections.  The  bad  she  divined :  it 
approached  like  some  threat  of  inflammation.  Natures 
resonant  as  that  which  animated  this  girl,  are  quick  at  the 
wells  of  understanding  :  and  she  had  her  intimations  of  the 
world's  wisdom  in  withholding  contagious  presences  from 
the  very  many  of  the  young,  who  may  not  have  an  aim,  or 
ideal  or  strong  human  compassion,  for  a  preservative.  She 
was  assured  of  her  possessing  it.     She  asked  herself  in  her 


348  ONE  OF  OUR  COKQITEROES 

mother's  voice,  and  answered  mutely,  v  She  had  the  cer- 
tainty: for  she  rebuked  the  slavish  feverishness  of  the 
passion,  as  betrayed  by  Mrs.  Marsett;  and  the  woman's 
tone,  as  of  strung  wires  ringing  on  a  rage  of  the  wind. 
Then  followed  her  cry  for  the  man  who  would  speak  to 
Captain  Marsett  of  his  duty  in  honour.  An  image  of  one, 
accompanying  the  faster  beats  of  her  heart,  beguiled  her  to 
think  away  from  the  cause.  He,  the  one  man  known  to 
her,  would  act  the  brother's  part  on  behalf  of  the  hapless 
creature. 

Nesta  just  imagined  her  having  supplicated  him,  and  at 
once  imagination  came  to  dust.  She  had  to  thank  him : 
she  knelt  to  him.  For  the  first  time  of  her  life  she  found 
herself  seized  with  her  sex's  slmdder  in  the  blood. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 


IN  WHICH   AGAIN  WE  MAKE  USE   OF   THE   OLD   LAMPS 
FOR   LIGHTING   AN   ABYSMAL   DARKNESS 

And  if  Nesta  had  looked  out  of  her  carriage-window  soon 
after  the  train  began  to  glide,  her  eagle  of  imagination 
would  have  reeled  from  the  heights,  wdth  very  different 
feelings,  earlier,  perhaps  a  captive,  at  sight  of  the  tardy 
gentleman  rushing  along  the  platform,  and  bending  ear  to 
the  footman  Perrin,  and  staring  for  one  lost. 

The  snaky  tail  of  the  train  imparted  to  Dudley  an  appre- 
hension of  the  ominous  in  his  having  missed  her.  It  wound 
away,  and  left  regrets,  which  raised  a  chorus  of  harsh 
congratulations  from  the  opposite  party  of  his  internal 
parliament. 

Neither  party  could  express  an  opinion  without  rousing 
the  other  to  an  uproar. 

He  had  met  his  cousin  South weare  overnight.  He  had 
heard  that  there  was  talk  of  Miss  Radnor.  Her  name  was 
in  the  mouth  of  Major  Worrell.  It  was  coupled  with  the 
name  of  Mrs.  Marsett.  A  military  captain,  in  the  succession 
to  be  Sir  Edward  Marsett,  bestowed  on  her  the  shadow  of 
his  name. 


OLD  LAMPS  FOR  LIGHTING  A  DARKNESS         349 

It  could  be  certified  that  Miss  Eadnor  visited  the  woman 
at  her  house.  What  are  we  to  think  of  Miss  Eadnor,  save 
that  daughters  of  depraved  parents  !  .  .  .  A  torture  un- 
deserved is  the  Centaur's  shirt  for  driving  us  to  lay  about 
in  all  directions.  He  who  had  swallowed  so  much  —  a 
thunderbolt:  a  still  undigested  discharge  from  the  perplex- 
ing heavens  —  jumped  frantic  under  the  pressure  upon  him 
of  more,  and  worse.  A  girl  getting  herself  talked  of  at  a 
Club  !  And  she  of  all  young  ladies  should  have  been  the 
last  to  draw  round  her  that  buzz  of  tongues.  On  such  a 
subject !  —  The  parents  pursuing  their  career  of  cynical 
ostentation  in  London,  threw  an  evil  eye  of  heredity  on 
their  offspring  in  the  egg',  making  anything  credible, 
pointing  at  tendencies. 

An  alliance  with  her  was  impossible.  So  said  disgust. 
Anger  came  like  a  stronger  beast,  and  extinguished  the 
safety  there  was  in  the  thing  it  consumed,  by  growing  so 
excessive  as  to  require  tempering  with  drops  of  compassion ; 
which  prepared  the  way  for  a  formal  act  of  cold  forgive- 
ness ;  and  the  moment  that  was  conceived,  he  had  a  passion 
to  commit  the  horrible  magnanimity,  and  did  it  on  a  grand 
scale,  and  dissolved  his  heart  in  the  grandeur,  and  enslaved 
himself  again. 

Far  from  expungeing  the  doubt  of  her,  forgiveness  gave 
it  a  stamp  and  an  edge.  His  renewed  enslavement  set  him 
perusing  his  tyrant  keenly,  as  nauseated  captives  do ;  and 
he  saw  that  forgiveness  was  beside  the  case.  For  this  Nesta 
Victoria  Eadnor  would  not  crave  it  or  accept  it.  He  had 
mentally  «played  the  woman  to  her  superior  vivaciousness 
too  long  for  him  to  see  her  taking  a  culprit's  attitude. 
What  she  did,  she  intended  to  do.  The  mother  would  not 
have  encouraged  her.  The  father  idolized  her;  and  the 
father  was  a  frank  hedonist,  whose  blood  .  .  .  speculation 
on  horseback  gallops  to  barren  extremes.  Eyes  like  hers 
—  if  there  had  not  been  the  miserable  dupes  of  girls! 
Conduct  is  the  sole  guide  to  female  character.  That  like- 
wise may  be  the  hypocrite's  mask. 

Popular  artists,  intent  to  gratify  the  national  taste  for 
effects  called  realistic,  have  figured  in  scenes  of  battle  the 
raying  fragments  of  a  man  from  impact  of  a  cannon-ball  on 
his  person.     Truly  thus  it  may  be  when  flesh  contends. 


350  ONE  OF  OUB  CONQUEIiOBS 

But  an  image  of  the  stricken  and  scattered  mind  of  the  man 
should,  though  deficient  in  the  attraction,  have  a  greater 
significance,  for  as  much  as  it  does  not  exhibit  him  entirely 
liquefied  and  showered  into  space ;  it  leaves  him  his  legs  for 
the  taking  of  further  steps.  Dudley,  standing  on  the  plat- 
form of  Nesta's  train,  one  half  minute  too  late,  according  to 
his  desire  before  he  put  himself  in  motion,  was  as  wildly 
torn  as  the  vapour  shredded  streaming  to  fingers  and  threads 
off  the  upright  columnar  shot  of  the  shriek  from  the  boiler. 
He  wished  every  mad  antagonism  to  his  wishes :  that  he 
might  see  her,  be  blind  to  her ;  embrace,  discard ;  heal  his 
wound,  and  tear  it  wider.  He  thanked  her  for  the  grossness 
of  an  offence  precluding  excuses.  He  w^as  aware  of  a 
glimmer  of  advocacy  in  the  very  grossness.  He  conjured- 
up  her  features,  and  they  said,  her  innocence  was  the 
sinner ;  they  scoffed  at  him  for  the  dupe  he  was  willing  to 
be.     She  had  enigma's  mouth,  with  the  eyes  of  morning. 

More  than  most  girls,  she  was  the  girl-Sphinx  to  him : 
because  of  her  having  ideas  —  or  what  he  deemed  ideas. 
She  struck  a  toneing  warmth  through  his  intelligence,  not 
dissimilar  to  the  livelier  circulation  of  the  blood  in  the 
frame  breathing  mountain  air.  She  really  helped  him, 
incited  him  to  go  along  with  this  windy  wild  modern  time 
more  cheerfully,  if  not  quite  hopefully.  For  she  had  been 
the  book  of  Romance  he  despised  when  it  appeared  as  a 
printed  volume :  and  which  might  have  educated  the  young 
man  to  read  some  among  our  riddles  in  the  book  of  humanity. 
The  white  he  was  ready  to  take  for  silver :  the  black  were 
all  black ;  the  spotted  had  received  corruption's  label.  Her 
youthful  French  governess  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  was  also 
peculiarly  enigmatic  at  the  mouth :  conversant,  one  might 
expect,  with  the  disintegrating  literature  of  her  country. 
In  public,  the  two  talked  of  St.  Louis.  One  of  them  in 
secret  visits  a  Mrs.  Marsett.  The  Southweare  women,  the 
Hennen  women,  and  Lady  Evelina  Keddish,  were  artless 
candid  creatures  in  their  early  days,  not  transgressing  in  a 
glance.  Lady  Grace  Halley  had  her  fit  of  the  devotional 
previous  to  marriage.  No  girl  known  to  Dudley  by  report 
or  acquaintance  had  committed  so  scandalous  an  indiscretion 
as  Miss  Radnor's :  it  pertained  to  the  insolently  vile. 

And  on  that  ground,  it  started  the  voluble  defence.    Fojr 


OLD  LAJSIPS  FOR  LIGHTING  A  DARKNESS         351 

certain  suspected  things  will  dash  suspicion  to  the  rebound, 
when  they  are  very  dark.  As  soon  as  the  charge  against 
her  was  moderated,  the  defence  expired.  He  heard  the 
world  delivering  its  judgement  upon  her;  and  he  sorrow- 
fully acquiesced.     She  passed  from  him. 

When  she  was  cut  off,  she  sang  him  in  the  distance  a 
remembered  saying  of  hers,  with  the  full  melody  of  her 
voice.  One  day,  treating  of  modern  Pessimism,  he  had 
draped  a  cadaverous  view  of  our  mortal  being  in  a  quotation 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  Philosopher  Emperor :  "  To  set  one's 
love  upon  the  swallow  is  a  futility."  And  she,  weighing  it, 
nodded,  and  replied :  '•  May  not  the  pleasure  for  us  remain 
if  we  set  our  love  upon  the  beauty  of  the  swallow's  flight  ? '' 

There  was,  for  a  girl,  a  bit  of  idea,  real  idea,  in  that: 
meaning,  of  course,  the  picture  we  are  to  have  of  the  bird's 
wings  in  motion ;  —  it  has  often  been  admired.  Oh  !  not 
much  of  an  idea  in  itself :  —  feminine  and  vague.  But  it 
was  pertinent,  opportune ;  in  this  way  she  stimulated. 

And  the  girl  who  could  think  it,  and  call  on  a  Mrs.  Mar- 
sett,  was  of  the  class  of  mixtures  properly  to  be  handed 
over  to  chemical  experts  for  analysis  ! 

She  had  her  aspirations  on  behalf  of  her  sex  :  she  and 
Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  discussed  them;  women  were  to 
do  this,  do  that :  —  necessarily  a  means  of  instructing  a  girl 
to  learn  what  they  did  do.  If  the  lower  part  of  her  face 
had  been  as  reassuring  to  him  as  the  upper,  he  might  have 
put  a  reluctant  faith  in  the  puremindedness  of  these  as- 
pirations, without  reverting  to  her  origin,  and  also  to  re- 
cent rumours  of  her  father  and  Lady  Grace  Halley.  As  it 
was,  he  inquired  of  the  cognizant,  whether  an  intellectual 
precocity,  devoted  by  preference  to  questions  affecting  the 
state  of  women,  did  not  rather  more  than  suggest  the  exist- 
ence of  urgent  senses  likewise.  She,  a  girl  under  twenty, 
had  an  interest  in  public  matters,  and  she  called  on  a  Mrs. 
Marsett.  To  plead. her  simplicity,  was  to  bo  absolutely 
ignorant  of  her. 

He  neighboured  sagacity  when  he  pointed  that  interroga- 
tion relating  to  Nesta's  precociousness  of  the  intelligence. 
For,  as  they  say  in  dactylomancy,  the  ''  psychical "  of  wo- 
men are  not  disposed  in  their  sensitive  early  days  to  dwell 
upon  the  fortunes  of  their  sex :  a  thought  or  two  turns  them 


/ 


352  ONE   OF   OUH   COKQUEHOES 

facing  away,  with  the  repugnant  shiver.  They  worship  at  a 
niche  in  the  wall.  They  cannot  avoid  imputing  some  share 
of  foulness  to  them  that  are  for  scouring  the  chamber  ;  and 
the  civilized  male,  keeping  his  own  chamber  locked,  quite 
shares  their  pale  taper's  view.  The  full-blooded  to  the 
finger-tips,  on  the  other  hand,  are  likely  to  be  drawn  to  the 
subject,  by  noble  inducement  as  often  as  by  base :  Nature 
at  flood  being  the  cause  in  either  instance.  This  young 
Nature  of  the  good  and  the  bad,  is  the  blood  which  runs  to 
power  of  heart  as  well  as  to  thirsts  of  the  flesh.  Then 
have  men  to  sound  themselves,  to  discover  how  much  of 
Nature  their  abstract  honourable  conception  or  representa- 
tive eidolon  of  young  women  will  bear  without  going  to 
pieces;  and  it  will  not  be  much,  unless  they  shall  have 
taken  instruction  from  the  poet's  pen:  —  for  a  view  pos- 
sibly of  Nature  at  work  to  cast  the  slough,  when  they  see 
her  writhing  as  in  her  ugliest  old  throes.  If  they  have 
learnt  of  Nature's  priest  to  respect  her,  they  will  less  dis- 
trust those  rare  daughters  of  hers  who  are  moved  by  her 
warmth  to  lift  her  out  of  slime.  It  is  by  her  own  live 
warmth  that  it  has  to  be  done :  cold  worship  at  a  niche  in 
the  wall  will  not  do  it.  —  Well,  there  is  an  index,  for  the 
enlargement  of  your  charity. 

But  facts  were  Dudley's  teachers.  Physically,  morally, 
mentally,  he  read  the  world  through  facts ;  —  that  is  to  say, 
through  the  facts  he  encountered:  and  he  was  in  conse- 
quence foredoomed  to  a  succession  of  bumps  ;  all  the  heavier 
from  his  being,  unlike  the  horned  kind,  not  unimpressible 
by  the  hazy  things  outside  his  experience.  Even  at  his 
darkest  over  Nesta,  it  was  his  indigestion  of  the  misconduct 
of  her  parents,  which  denied  to  a  certain  still  small  advocate 
within  him  the  right  to  raise  a  voice:  that  good  fellow 
struck  the  attitude  for  pleading,  and  had  to  be  silent ;  for 
he  was  Instinct ;  at  best  a  stammering  speaker  in  the  Court 
of  the  wigged  Facts.  Instinct  of  this  Nesta  Kadnor's  char- 
acter would  have  said  a  brave  word,  but  for  her  deeds  bear- 
ing witness  to  her  inheritance  of  a  lawlessly  adventurous 
\    temperament. 

What  to  do  ?  He  was  no  nearer  to  an  answer  when  the 
wintry  dusk  had  fallen  on  the  promenading  crowds.  To  do 
nothing,  is  the  wisdom  of  those  who  have  seen  fools  perish. 


OLD  LAIVrPS  FOB.  LIGHTING  A  DAEKNESS         353 

Facts  had  not  taught  him,  that  the  doing  nothing,  for  a 
length  of  days  after  the  first  shock  he  sustained,  was  the 
reason  of  how  it  came  that  Nesta  knitted  closer  her  acquaint- 
ance with  the  "  agreeable  lady ''  she  mentioned  in  her  letter 
to  Cronidge.  Those  excellent  counsellors  of  a  mercantile 
community  gave  him  no  warnings,  that  the  "masterly  in- 
active "  part,  so  greatly  esteemed  by  him  for  the  conduct  of 
public  affairs,  might  be  perilous  in  dealings  with  a  vivid 
girl ;  nor  a  hint,  that  when  facts  continue  undigested,  it  is 
because  the  sensations  are  as  violent  as  hysterical  females 
to  block  them  from  the  understanding.  His  Eobin  Good- 
fellow  instinct  tried  to  be  serviceable  at  a  crux  of  his  medi- 
tations, where  Edith  Averst's  consumptive  brothers  waved 
faded  hands  at  her  chances  of  inheriting  largely.  Superb 
for  the  chances :  but  what  of  her  offspring  ?  And  the 
other  was  a  girl  such  as  the  lusty  Dame  Dowager  of  lighting 
ancestors  would  have  signalled  to  the  heir  of  the  House's 
honours  for  the  perpetuation  of  his  race.  No  doubt ;  and 
the  venerable  Dame  (beautiful  in  her  old-lace  frame,  or  say 
foliage,  of  the  Ages  backward,  temp:  Ed:  III.)  inflated 
him  with  a  thought  of  her:  and  his  readings  in  modern 
books  on  heredity,  pure  blood,  physical  regeneration,  pro- 
nounced approval  of  Nesta  Kadnor :  and  thereupon  instinct 
opened  mouth  to  speak ;  and  a  lockjaw  seized  it  under  that 
scowl  of  his  presiding  mistrust  of  Nature. 

He  clung  to  his  mistrust  the  more  because  of  a  warning 
he  had  from  the  silenced  natural  voice :  somewhat  as  we 
may  behold  how  the  Conservatism  of  a  Class,  in  a  world  of 
all  the  evidences  showing  that  there  is  no  stay  to  things, 
comes  of  the  intuitive  discernment  of  its  finality.  His  mis- 
trust was  his  own  ;  and  Nesta  was  not ;  not  yet ;  though  a 
step  would  make  her  his  own.  Instinct  prompting  to  the 
step,  was  a  worthless  adviser.     It  spurred  him,  nevertheless. 

He  called  at  the  Club  for  his  cousin  Southweare,  with 
whom  he  was  not  in  sympathy ;  and  had  information  that, 
Southweare  said,  "  made  the  girl  out  all  right.  "  Girls  in 
these  days  do  things  which  the  sainted  stay-at-homes  pre- 
ceding them  would  not  have  dreamed  of  doing.  Something 
had  occurred,  relating  to  Major  Worrell :  he  withdrew  Miss 
Radnor's  name,  acknowledged  himself  mistaken  or  amended 
his  report  of  her,  in  some  way,  not  quite  intelligible.    Dudley 

23 


354  OJSTE  OP   OUR  CONQUERORS 

was  accosted  by  Simeon  Fenellan ;  subsequently  by  Dartrey. 
There  was  gossip  over  the  latter  gentleman's  having  been 
up  before  the  magistrate,  talk  of  a  queer  kind  of  stick,  and 
Dartrey  said,  laughing,  to  Simeon ;  "  Rather  lucky  I  bled  the 
rascal ; ''  —  whatever  the  meaning.  She  nursed  one  of  her 
adorations  for  this  man,  who  had  yesterday,  apparently, 
joined  in  a  street-fray ;  so  she  partook  of  the  stain  of  the 
turbid  defacing  all  these  disorderly  people. 

At  his  hotel,  at  breakfast  the  next  morning,  a  newspaper 
furnished  an  account  of  Captain  Dartrey  Fenellan's  partici- 
pation in  the  strife,  after  mention  of  him  as  nephew  of  the 
Earl  of  Clanconan,  "•  now  a  visitor  to  our  town  ; "  and  his 
deeds  were  accordant  with  his  birth.  Such  writing  was 
enough  to  send  Dudley  an  eager  listener  to  Colney  Durance. 
What  a  people ! 

Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan's  card  compelled  Dudley  presently 
to  receive  him. 

Dartrey,  not  debarred  by  considerations  that  an  allusion 
to  Miss  Radnor  could  be  conveyed  only  in  the  most  delicately 
obscure  manner,  spared  him  no  more  than  the  plain  English 
of  his  relations  with  her.  Requested  to  come  to  the  Club, 
at  a  certain  hour  of  the  afternoon,  that  he  might  hear  Major 
Worrell's  personal  contradiction  of  scandal  involving  the 
young  lady's  name,  together  with  his  apology,  etc.,  Dudley 
declined :  and  he  was  obliged  to  do  it  curtly  ;  words  were 
wanting.  They  are  hard  to  find  for  wounded  sentiments 
rendered  complex  by  an  infusion  of  policy.  His  present 
mood,  with  the  something  new  to  digest,  held  the  going  to 
Major  Worrell  a  wrong  step ;  he  behaved  as  if  the  speaking 
to  Dartrey  Fenellan  pledged  him  hardly  less.  And  besides 
he  had  a  physical  abhorrence,  under  dictate  of  moral  repro- 
bation, of  the  broad-shouldered  sinewy  man,  whose  look  of 
wiry  alertness  pictured  the  previous  day's  gory  gutters. 

Dartrey  set  sharp  eyes  on  him  for  an  instant,  bowed,  and 
went. 


NESTA   AND   HER  FATHER  355 

CHAPTER  XXXVI 

NESTA    AND     HER     FATHER 

The  day  of  Nesta's  return  was  one  of  a  number  of  late 
when  Victor  was  robbed  of  his  walk  Westward  by  Lady 
Grace  Halley,  who  seduced  his  politeness  with  her  various 
forms  of  blandishment  to  take  a  seat  in  her  carriage ;  and 
she  was  a  practical  speaker  upon  her  quarter  of  the  world 
when  she  had  him  there.  Perhaps  she  was  right  in  saying 
—  though  she  had  no  right  to  say  —  that  he  and  she  together 
might  have  the  world  under  their  feet.  It  was  one  of  those 
irritating  suggestions  which  expedite  us  up  to  a  bald  ceiling, 
only  to  make  us  feel  the  gas-bladder's  tight  extension  upon 
emptiness.  It  moved  him  to  examine  the  poor  value  of  his 
aim,  by  tying  him  to  the  contemptible  means. »  One  estimate 
involved  the  other,  whichever  came  first.  Somewhere  he 
had  an  idea,  that  would  lift  and  cleanse  all  degradations. 
But  it  did  seem  as  if  he  were  not  enjoying  :  things  pleasant 
enough  in  the  passage  of  them  were  barren,  if  not  prickly, 
in  the  retrospect. 

He  sprang  out  at  the  head  of  the  park,  for  a  tramp  round 
it,  in  the  gloom  of  the  girdle  of  lights,  to  recover  his  dead- 
ened relish  of  the  thin  phantasmal  strife  to  win  an  in- 
tangible prize.  His  dulled  physical  system  asked,  as  with 
the  sensations  of  a  man  at  the  start  from  sleep  in  the  hurry- 
ing grip  of  steam,  what  on  earth  he  wanted  to  get,  and  what 
was  the  substance  of  his  gains:  what!  if  other  than  a  pre- 
cipitous intimacy,  a  deep  crumbling  over  deeper,  with  a 
little  woman  amusing  him  in  remarks  of  a  whimsical 
nudity ;  hardly  more.  Nay,  not  more  !  he  said  ;  and  at  the 
end  of  twenty  paces,  he  saw  much  more;  the  campaign 
gathered  a  circling  suggestive  brilliancy,  like  the  lamps 
about  the  winter  park;  the  Society,  lured  with  glitter, 
hooked  by  greed,  composed  a  ravishing  picture ;  the  little 
woman  was  esteemed  as  a  serviceable  lieutenant ;  and  her 
hand  was  a  small  soft  one,  agreeable  to  fondle  —  and  avaunt ! 
But  so  it  is  in  war  :  we  must  pay  for  our  allies.     What  if 


356  ONE  OF  OUE  CONQUERORS 

it  had.  been  that  he  and  she  together,  with  their  united 
powers  .  .  .  ?  He  dashed  the  silly  vision  aside,  as  vainer 
than  one  of  the  bubble-empires  blown  by  boys  ;  and  it  broke, 
showing  no  heart  in  it.     His  heart  was  Nataly's. 

Let  Colney  hint  his  worst ;  Nataly  bore  the  strain,  always 
did  bear  any  strain  coming  in  the  round  of  her  duties :  and 
if  she  would  but  walk,  or  if  she  danced  at  parties,  she  would 
scatter  the  fits  of  despondency  besetting  the  phlegmatic, 
like  this  day's  breeze  the  morning  fog ;  or  as  he  did  with 
two  minutes  of  the  stretch  of  legs. 

Full  of  the  grandeur  of  that  black  pit  of  the  benighted 
London,  with  its  ocean-voice  of  the  heart  at  beat  along  the 
lighted  outer  ring,  Victor  entered  at  his  old  door  of  the 
two  houses  he  had  knocked  into  one :  —  a  surprise  for  Fredi ! 
—  and  heard  that  his  girl  had  arrived  in  the  morning. 

"And  could  no  more  endure  her  absence  from  her 
Mammy  Oh ! "  The  songful  satirical  line  spouted  in  him,  to 
be  flung  at  his  girl,  as  he  ran  upstairs  to  the  boudoir  off  the 
drawing-room.* 

He  peeped  in.  It  was  dark.  Sensible  of  presences,  he 
gradually  discerned  a  thick  blot  along  the  couch  to  the  right 
of  the  door,  and  he  drew  near.  Two  were  lying  folded 
together ;  mother  and  daughter.  He  bent  over  them.  His 
hand  was  taken  and  pressed  by  Fredi's ;  she  spoke;  she  said 
tenderly  :  "  Father."  Neither  of  the  two  made  a  movement. 
He  heard  the  shivering  rise  of  a  sob,  that  fell.  The  dry 
sob  going  to  the  waste  breath  was  Nataly's.  His  girl  did 
not  speak  again. 

He  left  them.  He  had  no  thought  until  he  stood  in  his 
dressing-room,  when  he  said  "  Good ! "  For  those  two 
must  have  been  lying  folded  together  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  day:  and  it  meant  that  the  mother's  heart  had 
opened ;  the  girl  knew.  Her  tone  :  "  Father,"  sweet,  was 
heavy,  too,  with  the  darkness  it  came  out  of. 

So  slie  knew.  Good.  He  clasped  them  both  in  his  heart; 
tempering  his  pity  of  those  dear  ones  with  the  thought  that 
they  were  of  the  sex  which  finds  enjoyment  in  a  day  of  the 
mutual  tear ;  and  envying  them  ;  he  strained  at  a  richness 
appearing  in  the  sobs  of  their  close  union. 

All  of  his  girPs  loving  soul  flew  to  her  mother;  and 
naturally ! 


NESTA  AND  HER  FATHER  S5t 

She  would  not  be  harsh  on  her  father.  She  would  say: 
—  he  loved  !  And  true  :  he  did  love,  he  does  love ;  loves 
no  woman  but  the  dear  mother. 

He  flicked  a  short  wring  of  the  hand  having  taken  pres- 
sure from  an  alien  woman's  before  Fredi  pressed  it,  and 
absolved  himself  in  the  act ;  thinking,  How  little  does  a 
woman  know  how  true  we  can  be  to  her  when  we  smell  at  a 
flower  here  and  there  !  —  There  they  are,  stationary  ;  women 
the  flowers,  we  the  bee ;  and  we  are  faithful  in  our  seeming 
volatility ;  faithful  to  the  hive  !  —  And  if  women  are  to  be 
stationary,  the  reasoning  is  not  so  bad.  Funny,  however, 
if  they  here  and  there  imitatively  spread  a  wing,  and  treat 
men  in  that  way  ?  It  is  a  breach  of  the  convention ;  we 
pay  them  our  homage,  that  they  may  serve  as  flowers,  not 
to  be  volatile  tempters.  Nataly  never  had  been  one  of  the 
sort:  Lady  Grace  was.  No  necessity  existed  for  compel- 
ling the  world  to  bow  to  Lady  Grace,  while  on  behalf  of  his 
Nataly  he  had  to  .  .  .  Victor  closed  the  curtain  over  a  gulf 
revealed  by  an  invocation  of  Nature,  and  showing  the  tre- 
mendous force  he  partook  of  so  largely,  in  her  motive 
elements  of  the  devourer.  Horrid  to  behold,  when  we 
need  a  gracious  presentation  of  the  circumstances.  She  is 
a  splendid  power  for  as  long  as  we  confine  her  between  the 
banks :  but  she  has  a  passion  to  discover  cracks  ;  and  if  we 
give  her  headway,  she  will  find  one,  and  drive  at  it,  and  be 
through,  uproarious  in  her  primitive  licentiousness,  unless 
we  labour  body  and  soul  like  Dutchmen  at  the  dam.  Here 
she  was,  and  not  desired,  almost  detested !  Nature  detested ! 
It  had  come  about  through  the  battle  for  Nataly ;  chiefly 
through  Mrs.  Bur  man's  tenacious  hold  of  the  filmy  thread 
she  took  for  life  and  was  enabled  to  use  as  a  means  for  the 
perversion  besides  bar  to  the  happiness  of  creatures  really 
living.  We  may  well  marvel  at  the  Fates,  and  tell  them 
they  are  not  moral  agents  ! 

Victor's  reflections  came  across  Colney  Durance,  who 
tripped  and  stopped  them. 

Dressed  with  his  customary  celerity,  he  waited  for  Nesta, 
to  show  her  the  lighted  grand  double  drawing-room:  a 
further  proof  of  how  Fortune  favoured  him  :  —  she  was  to 
be  told,  how  he  one  day  expressed  a  wish  for  greater  space, 
and  was  informed  on  the  next,  that  the  neighbour  house 


358  OlfE  OF  OUR  CONQTJEEOES 

was  being  vacated,  and  the  day  following  he  was  in  treaty 
for  the  purchase  of  it ;  returning  from  Tyrol,  he  found  his 
place  habitable. 

Nesta  came.  Her  short  look  at  him  was  fond,  her  voice 
not  faltering ;  she  laid  her  hand  under  his  arm  and  walked 
round  the  spacious  room,  praising  the  general  design, 
admiring  the  porcelain,  the  ferns,  friezes,  hangings,  and  the 
grand  piano,  the  ebony  inlaid  music-stands,  the  fire-grates 
and  plaques,  the  ottomans,  the  tone  of  neutral  colour  that, 
as  in  sound,  muted  splendour.  He  told  her  it  was  a  recep- 
tion night,  with  music :  and  added :  "  I  miss  my  .  .  .  seen 
anybody  lately  ?  " 

"Mr.  Sowerby?''  said  she.  "He  was  to  have  escorted 
me  back.     He  may  have  overslept  himself." 

She  spoke  it  plainly;  when  speaking  of  the  dear  good 
ladies,  she  set  a  gentle  humour  at  play,  and  comforted  him, 
as  she  intended,  with  a  souvenir  of  her  lively  spirit,  want- 
ing only  in  the  manner  of  gaiety. 

He  allowed,  that  she  could  not  be  quite  gay. 

More  deeply  touched  the  next  minute,  he  felt  in  her 
voice,  in  her  look,  in  her  phrasing  of  speech,  an  older,  much 
older  daughter  than  the  Fredi  whom  he  had  conducted  to 
Moorsedge.     "Kiss  me,"  he  said. 

She  turned  to  him  full-front,  and  kissed  his  right  cheek 
and  left,  and  his  forehead,  saying :  "  My  love  !  my  papa ! 
my  own  dear  dada ! "  all  the  words  of  her  girlhood  in  her 
new  sedateness;  and  smiling:  like  the  moral  crepuscular 
of  a  sunlighted  day  down  a  not  totally  inanimate  Sunday 
London  street. 

He  strained  her  to  his  breast.    "  Mama  soon  be  here  ?  " 

"  Soon." 

That  was  well.  And  possibly  at  the  present  moment 
applying,  with  her  cunning  hand,  the  cosmetics  and  powders 
he  could  excuse  for  a  concealment  of  the  traces  of  grief. 

Satisfied  in  being  a  superficial  observer,  he  did  not  spy  to 
see  more  than  the  world  would  when  Nataly  entered  the 
dining-room  at  the  quiet  family  dinner.  She  performed  her 
part  for  his  comfort,  though  not  prattling ;  and  he  missed 
his  Fredi's  delicious  warble  of  the  prattle  running  rill-like 
over  our  daily  humdrum.  Simeon  Fenellan  would  have 
helped.     Then  suddenly  came  enlivenment :  a  recollection 


KESTA  AND  HEE  FATHER  S59 

of  news  in  the  morning's  paper.  "  jS"o  harm  before  Fredi, 
my  dear.  She  ^s  a  young  woman  now.  And  no  harm,  so 
to  speak  —  at  least,  not  against  the  Sanfredini.  She  has 
donned  her  name  again,  and  a  villa  on  Como,  leaving  her 
duque  ;  — paragraph  from  a  Milanese  musical  Journal ;  no 
particulars.  Now,  mark  me,  we  shall  have  her  at  Lake- 
lands in  the  summer.     If  only  we  could  have  her  now  ! '' 

"  It  would  be  a  pleasure/'  said  Nataly.  Her  heart  had  a 
blow  in  the  thought  that  a  lady  of  this  kind  would  create 
the  pleasure  by  not  bringing  criticism. 

"  The  godmother  ?  "  he  glistened  upon  Nesta. 

She  gave  him  low  half-notes  of  the  little  blue  butterfly's 
imitation  of  the  superb  contralto ;  and  her  hand  and  head 
at  turn  to  hint  the  theatrical  operatic  attitude. 

"  Delicious  ! "  he  cried,  his  eyelids  were  bedewed  at  the 
vision  of  the  three  of  them  planted  in  the  past;  and  here 
again,  out  of  the  dark  wood,  where  something  had  required 
to  be  said,  and  had  been  said ;  and  all  was  happily  over, 
owing  to  the  goodness  and  sweetness  of  the  two  dear 
innocents ;  —  whom  heaven  bless  !  Jealousy  of  their  natu- 
rally closer  heart-at-heart  had  not  a  whisper  for  him ;  part 
of  their  goodness  and  sweetness  was  felt  to  be  in  the  not 
excluding  him. 

Nesta  engaged  to  sing  one  of  the  old  duets  with  her 
mother.  She  saw  her  mother's  breast  lift  in  a  mechanical 
effort  to  try  imaginary  notes,  as  if  doubtful  of  her  capacity, 
more  at  home  in  the  dumb  deep  sigh  they  fell  to.  Her 
mother's  heroism  made  her  a  sacred  woman  to  the  thoughts 
of  the  girl,  overcoming  wonderment  at  the  extreme  sub- 
missiveness. 

She  put  a  screw  on  her  mind  to  perceive  the  rational 
object  there  might  be  for  causing  her  mother  to  go  through 
tortures  in  receiving  and  visiting ;  and  she  was  arrested  by 
the  louder  question,  whether  she  could  think  such  a  man  as 
her  father  irrational. 

People  with  resounding  names,  waves  of  a  steady  stream, 
were  announced  by  Arlington,  just  as  in  the  days,  that 
seemed  remote,  before  she  went  to  Moorsedge;  only  they 
were  more  numerous,  and  some  of  the  titles  had  ascended 
a  stage.  There  were  great  lords,  there  were  many  great 
ladies  j  and  Lady  Grace  Halley  shuffling  amid  them,  like  a 


860  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEORS 

silken  shimmer  in  voluminous  robes.  They  crowded  about 
their  host  where  he  stood.  ^^He  is  their  Lawl^^  Colney 
said,  speaking  unintelligibly,  in  the  absence  of  the  Simeon 
Fenellan  regretted  so  loudly  by  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing. 
They  had  an  air  of  worshipping,  and  he  of  swimming. 

There  were  also  City  magnates,  and  Lakelands'  neighbours : 
the  gentleman  representing  Pride  of  Port,  Sir  Abraham 
Quatley ;  and  Colonel  Corfe  ;  Sir  Rodwell  and  Lady  Blach- 
ington;  Mrs.  Panning;  Mr.  Caddis.  Pew  young  men  and 
maids  were  seen.  Dr.  John  Cormyn  came  without  his  wife, 
not  mentioning  her.  Mrs.  Peter  Yatt  touched  the  notes  for 
voices  at  the  piano.  Priscilla  Graves  was  a  vacancy,  and 
likewise  the  Eev.  Septimus  Barmby.  Peridon  and  Catkin, 
and  Mr.  Pempton  took  their  usual  places.  There  was  no 
fluting.  A  famous  Canadian  lady  was  the  principal  singer. 
A  Galician  violinist,  zig-zagging  extreme  extensions  and 
contractions  of  his  corporeal  frame  in  execution,  and  de- 
scribed by  Colney  as  ^^  Paganini  on  a  wall,"  failed  to  supplant 
Durandarte  in  Nesta's  memory.  She  was  asked  by  Lady 
Grace  for  the  latest  of  Dudley.  Sir  Abraham  Quatley 
named  him  with  handsome  emphasis.  Great  dames  caressed 
her;  openly  approved;  shadowed  the  future  place  among 
them. 

Victor  alluded  at  night  to  Mrs.  John  Cormyn's  absence. 
He  said:  "A  homoeopathic  doctor's  wife!"  nothing  more; 
and  by  that  little,  he  prepared  Nesta  for  her  mother's 
explanation.  The  great  London  people,  ignorant  or  not, 
were  caught  by  the  strong  tide  he  created,  and  carried  on  it. 
But  there  was  a  bruiting  of  the  secret  among  their  set ;  and 
the  one  to  fall  away  from  her,  Nataly  marvellingly  named 
Mrs.  John  Cormyn;  whose  marriage  was  of  her  making. 
She  did  not  disapprove  Priscilla's  behaviour.  Priscilla  had 
come  to  her  and,  protesting  affection,  had  openly  stated  that 
she  required  time  and  retirement  to  recover  her  proper 
feelings.  Nataly  smiled  a  melancholy  criticism  of  an  incon- 
sequent or  capricious  woman,  in  relating  to  Nesta  certain 
observations  Priscilla  had  dropped  upon  poor  faithful  Mr. 
Pempton,  because  of  his  concealment  from  her  of  his  knowl- 
edge of  things :  for  this  faithful  gentleman  had  been  one  of 
the  few  not  ignorant.  The  rumour  was  traceable  to  the 
Citv. 


NESTA  AND  HER  FATHER  861 

"Mother,  we  walk  on  planks,"  Nesta  said. 

Nataly  answered :  "  You  will  grow  used  to  it." 

Her  mother's  habitual  serenity  in  martyrdom  was  deceiv- 
ing. Nesta  had  a  transient  suspicion  that  she  had  grown, 
from  use,  to  like  the  whirl  of  company,  for  oblivion  in  the 
excitement;  and  as  her  remembrance  of  her  own  station 
among  the  crowding  people  was  a  hot  flush,  the  difference 
of  their  feelings  chilled  her. 

Nataly  said :  "  It  is  to-morrow  night  again ;  we  do  not 
rest."  She  smiled;  and  at  once  the  girl  read  woman's 
armour  on  the  dear  face,  and  asked  herself,  Could  I  be  so 
brave  ?  The  question  following  was  a  speechless  wave,  that 
surged  at  her  father.  She  tried  to  fathom  the  scheme  he 
entertained.  The  attempt  obscured  her  conception  of  the 
man  he  was.  She  could  not  grasp  him,  being  too  young  for 
knowing  that  young  heads  cannot  obtain  a  critical  hold 
upon  one  whom  they  see  grandly  succeeding :  it  is  the  sun's 
brilliance  to  their  eyes. 

Mother  and  daughter  slept  together  that  night,  and  their 
embrace  was  their  world. 

Nesta  delighted  her  father  the  next  day  by  walking  beside 
him  into  the  City,  as  far  as  the  end  of  the  Embankment, 
where  the  carriage  was  in  waiting  with  her  maid  to  bring 
her  back ;  and  at  his  mere  ejaculation  of  a  wish,  the  hardy 
girl  drove  down  in  the  afternoon  for  the  walk  home  with 
him.  Lady  Grace  Halley  was  at  the  office.  "  I  am  an  in- 
corrigible Stock  Exchange  gambler,"  she  said. 

"  Only,"  Victor  bade  her  beware,  "  Mines  are  undulating 
in  movement,  and  their  heights  are  a  preparation  for  their 
going  down." 

She  said  she  "  liked  a  swing." 

Nesta  looked  at  them  in  turn. 

The  day  after  and  the  day  after,  Lady  Grace  was  present. 
She  made  play  with  Dudley's  name. 

This  coming  into  the  City  daily  of  a  girl,  for  the  sake  of 
walking  back  in  winter  weather  with  her  father,  struck  her 
as  ambiguous :  either  a  jealous  foolish  mother's  device,  or 
that  of  a  weak  man  beating  about  for  protection.  But  the 
woman  of  the  positive  world  soon  read  to  the  contrary; 
helped  a  little  by  the  man,  no  doubt.  She  read  rather  too 
much  to  the  contrary,  and  took  the  pedestrian  girl  for  perfect 


362  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQUERORS 

simplicity  in  her  tastes,  when  Nesta  had  so  far  grown 
watchful  as  to  feel  relieved  by  the  lady's  departure.  Her 
mother,  without  sympathy  for  the  lady,  was  too  great  of 
soul  for  jealousy.  Victor  had  his  ISTataly  before  him  at  a 
hint  from  Lady  Grace :  and  he  went  somewhat  further  than 
the  exact  degree  when  affirming  that  Nataly  could  not 
scheme,  and  was  incapable  of  suspecting.  —  Nataly  could 
perceive  things  with  a  certain  accuracy :  she  would  not  stoop 
to  a  meanness.  —  "  Plot  ?  Nataly  ?  "  said  he,  and  shrugged. 
In  fact,  the  void  of  plot,  drama,  shuffle  of  excitement,  re- 
flected upon  Nataly.  He  might  have  seen  as  tragic  as  ever 
dripped  on  Stage,  had  he  looked. 

But  the  walk  Westward  with  his  girl,  together  with 
pride  in  a  daughter  who  clove  her  way  through  all 
weathers,  won  his  heart  to  exultation.  He  told  her: 
"Fredi  does  her  dada  so  much  good;"  not  telling  her  in 
what,  or  opening  any  passage  to  the  mystery  of  the  man 
he  was.  She  was  trying  to  be  a  student  of  life,  with  her 
eyes  down  upon  hard  earth,  despite  of  her  winged  young 
head;  she  would  have  compassed  him  better  had  he 
dilated  in  sublime  fashion ;  but  he  baffled  her  perusal  of 
a  man  of  power  by  the  simpleness  of  his  enjoyment  of 
small  things  coming  in  his  way ;  —  the  lighted  shops,  the 
crowd,  emergence  from  the  crowd,  or  the  meeting  near 
midwinter  of  a  soft  warm  wind  along  the  Embankment, 
and  dark  Thames  magnificently  coroneted  over  his  grimy 
flow.     There  is  no  grasping  of  one  who  quickens  us. 

His  flattery  of  his  girl,  too,  restored  her  broken  feeling 
of  personal  value ;  it  permeated  her  nourishingly  from  the 
natural  breath  of  him  that  it  was. 

At  times  he  touched  deep  in  humaneness ;  and  he  sat  her 
heart  leaping  on  the  flash  of  a  thought  to  lay  it  bare,  with 
the  secret  it  held,  for  his  help.  That  was  a  dream.  She 
could  more  easily  have  uttered  the  words  to  Captain  Dar- 
trey,  after  her  remembered  abashing  holy  tremour  of  the 
vision  of  doing  it  and  casting  herself  on  noblest  man's  com- 
passionateness ;  and  her  imagined  thousand  emotions ;  —  a 
rolling  music  within  her,  a  wreath  of  cloud-glory  in  her 
sky;  — which  had,  as  with  virgins  it  may  be,  plighted  her 
body  to  him  for  sheer  urgency  of  soul;  drawn  her  by  a 
single    unwitting-to-brain,    conscious-in-blood,    shy    curl 


NESTA  AND  HER  FATHER  868 

outward  of  the  sheathing  leaf  to  the  flowering  of  woman 
to  him;  even  to  the  shore  of  that  strange  sea,  where  the 
maid  stands  choosing  this  one  man  for  her  destiny,  as  in  a 
trance.  So  are  these  young  ones  unfolded,  shade  by  shade; 
and  a  shade  is  all  the  difference  with  them ;  they  can  teach 
the  poet  to  marvel  at  the  immensity  of  vitality  in  "the 
shadow  of  a  shade." 

Her  father  shut  the  glimpse  of  a  possible  speaking  to 
him  of  Mrs.  Marsett,  with  a  renewal  of  his  eulogistic 
allusions  to  Dudley  Sowerby:  the  "perfect  gentleman, 
good  citizen;  "  prospective  heir  to  an  earldom  besides. 
She  bowed  to  Dudley's  merits;  she  read  off  the  honorific 
pedimental  letters  of  a  handsome  statue,  for  a  sign  to  her- 
self that  she  passed  it. 

She  was  unjust,  as  Victor  could  feel,  though  he  did  not 
know  how  coldly  unjust.  For  among  the  exorbitant  requi- 
sitions upon  their  fellow -creatures  made  by  the  young,  is 
the  demand  that  they  be  definite:  no  mercy  is  in  them 
for  the  transitional.  And  Dudley  —  and  it  was  under  her 
influence,  and  painfully,  not  ignobly  —  was  in  process  of 
development:  interesting  to  philosophers,  if  not  to 
maidens. 

Victor  accused  her  of  paying  too  much  heed  to  Colney 
Durance's  epigrams  upon  their  friends.  He  quite  joined 
with  his  English  world  in  its  opinion,  that  epigrams  are 
poor  squibs  when  they  do  not  come  out  of  great  guns. 
Epigrams  fired  at  a  venerable  nation  are  surely  the  poorest 
of  popgun  paper  pellets.  The  English  kick  at  the  inso- 
lence, when  they  are  not  in  the  mood  for  pelleting  them- 
selves, or  when  the  armed  Foreigner  is  overshadowing 
and  braceing.  Colney 's  pretentious  and  laboured  Satiric 
Prose  Epic  of  "The  Rival  Tongues,"  particularly  offended 
him,  as  being  a  clever  aim  at  no  hitting;  and  sustained 
him,  inasmuch  as  it  was  an  acid  friend's  collapse.  How 
could  Colney  expect  his  English  to  tolerate  such  a  spiteful 
diatribe!  The  suicide  of  Dr.  Bouthoin  at  San  Francisco 
was  the  finishing  stroke  to  the  chances  of  success  of  the 
Serial;  —  although  we  are  promised  splendid  evolutions  on 
the  part  of  Mr.  Semhians;  who,  after  brilliant  achieve- 
ments with  bat  and  ball,  abandons  those  weapons  of  Old 
England's  modern  renown,  for  a  determined  wrestle  with 


364  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

our  English  pronunciation  of  words,  and  rescue  of  the 
spelling  of  them  from  the  printer.  His  headache  over  the 
present  treatment  of  the  verb  "To  bid,"  was  a  quaint  be- 
ginning for  one  who  had  soon  to  plead  before  Japanese, 
and  who  acknowledged  now  "in  contrition  of  spirit," 
that  in  formerly  opposing  the  scheme  for  an  Academy,  he 
helped  to  the  handing  of  our  noble  language  to  the  rapid 
reporter  of  news  for  an  apathetic  public.  Further,  he 
discovered  in  astonishment  the  subordination  of  all  literary 
Americans  to  the  decrees  of  their  literary  authorities; 
marking  a  Transatlantic  point  of  departure,  and  contrasting 
ominously  with  the  unruly  Islanders  — "  grunting  the 
higgledy-piggledy  of  their  various  ways,  in  all  the  porker^s 
gut-gamut  at  the  rush  to  the  trough."  After  a  week's  pri- 
vation of  bat  and  ball,  he  is,  lighted  or  not,  a  gas-jet  of 
satire  upon  his  countrymen.  As  for  the  "  pathetic  sublimity 
of  the  Funeral  of  Dr.  Bouthoin,"  Victor  inveighed  against 
an  impious  irony  in  the  overdose  of  the  pathos;  and  the 
same  might  be  suspected  in  Britannia's  elegy  upon  him, 
a  strain  of  hot  eulogy  throughout.  Mr.  Semhians,  all 
but  treasonably,  calls  it,  Papboat  and  Brandy:  —  "our 
English  literary  diet  of  the  day:"  stimulating  and  not 
nourishing.  Britannia's  mournful  anticipation,  that  "  The 
shroud  enwinding  this  my  son  is  mine !  '^  —  should  the 
modern  generation  depart  from  the  track  of  him  who 
proved  himself  the  giant  in  mainly  supporting  her  glory 
—  was,  no  doubt,  a  high  pitch  of  the  note  of  Conservatism. 
But  considering  that  Dr.  Bouthoin  "committed  suicide 
under  a  depression  of  mind  produced  by  a  surfeit  of  unac- 
customed dishes,  upon  a  physical  system  inspired  by  the 
traditions  of  exercise,  and  no  longer  relieved  by  the  prac- 
tice " —  to  translate  from  Dr.  Gannius:  —  we  are  again  at 
war  with  the  writer's  reverential  tone,  and  we  know  not 
what  to  think:  except  that  Mr.  Durance  was  a  Saturday 
meat-market's  butcher  in  the  Satiric  Art. 

Nesta  found  it  pleasanter  to  see  him  than  to  hear  of  his 
work:  which,  to  her  present  feeling,  was  inhuman.  As 
little  as  our  native  public,  had  she  then  any  sympathy  for 
the  working  in  the  idea:  she  wanted  throbs,  visible  aims, 
the  Christian  incarnate;  she  would  have  preferred  the  tale 
of  slaughter  —  periodically  invading  all  English  classes  as 


NESTA  AND   HER  FATHER  365 

a  flush  from  tlie  undrained  lower,  Vikings  all  —  to  frigid 
sterile  Satire.  And  truly  it  is  not  a  fruit-bearing  rod. 
Colney  had  to  stand  on  the  defence  of  it  against  the  dam- 
sel's charges.  He  thought  the  use  of  the  rod,  while  ex- 
pressing profound  regret  at  a  dilference  of  opinion  between 
him  and  those  noble  heathens,  beneficial  for  boys ;  but  in 
relation  to  their  seniors,  and  particularly  for  old  gentle- 
men, he  thought  that  the  sharpest  rod  to  cut  the  skin 
was  the  sole  saving  of  them.  Insensibility  to  Satire,  he 
likened  to  the  hard-mouthed  horse ;  which  is  doomed  to  the 
worser  thing  in  consequence.  And  consequently  upon  the 
lack  of  it,  and  of  training  to  appreciate  it,  he  described  his 
country's  male  venerables  as  being  distinguishable  from 
annuitant  spinsters  only  in  presenting  themselves  forked. 

"He  is  unsuccessful  and  embittered,"  Victor  said  to 
Nesta.  "  Colney  will  find  in  the  end,  that  he  has  lost  his 
game  and  soured  himself  by  never  making  concessions. 
Here  's  this  absurd  Serial  —  it  fails,  of  course;  and  then  he 
has  to  say,  it 's  because  he  won't  tickle  his  English,  won't 
enter  into  a  *  frowzy  complicity  '  with  their  tastes." 

"  But  —  I  think  of  Skepsey  —  honest  creatures  respect 
Mr.  Durance,  and  he  is  always  ready  to  help  them,"  said 
Nesta. 

"If  he  can  patronize." 

"  Does  he  patronize  me,  dada  ?  " 

"You  are  one  of  his  exceptions.  Marry  a  title  and 
live  in  state  —  and  then  hear  him !  I  am  successful,  and 
the  result  of  it  is,  that  he  won't  acknowledge  wisdom  in 
anything  I  say  or  do;  he  will  hardly  acknowledge  the  suc- 
cess. It  is  *  a  dirty  road  to  success,'  he  says.  So  that,  if 
successful,  I  must  have  rolled  myself  in  mire.  I  com- 
pelled him  to  admit  he  was  wrong  about  your  being  re- 
ceived at  Moorsedge :  a  bit  of  a  triumph  !  " 

Nesta's  walks  with  her  father  were  no  loss  of  her  to 
Nataly ;  the  girl  came  back  to  her  bearing  so  fresh  and  so 
full  a  heart ;  and  her  father  was  ever  prouder  of  her :  he 
presented  new  features  of  her  in  his  quotations  of  her  say- 
ings, thoughtful  sayings.  "I  declare  she  helps  one  to 
think,"  he  said.  "  It 's  not  precocity;  it 's  healthy  inquiry. 
She  brings  me  nearer  ideas  of  my  own,  not  yet  examined, 
than  any  one  else  does.     I  say,  what  a  wife  for  a  man ! " 


366  ONE  OF  OUB  CONQUEEOES 

"She  takes  my  place  beside  you,  dear,  now  1  am  not 
quite  strong,"  said  Nataly.     "You  have  not  seen  .  .  .  ?  " 

"Dudley  Sowerby?  He's  at  Cronidge,  I  believe.  His 
elder  brother 's  in  a  bad  way.  Bad  business,  this  looking 
to  a  death." 

Nataly's  eyes  revealed  a  similar  gulf. 

Let  it  be  cast  on  Society,  then  !  A  Society  opposing 
Nature  forces  us  to  these  murderous  looks  upon  impedi- 
ments. But  what  of  a  Society  in  the  dance  with  Nature  ? 
Victor  did  not  approve  of  that.  He  began,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Nesta's  companionship,  to  see  the  Goddess 
Nature  there  is  in  a  chastened  nature.  And  this  view 
{  shook  the  curtain  covering  his  lost  Idea.     He  felt  sure  he 

should  grasp  it  soon  and  enter  into  its  daylight :  a  muffled 
voice  within  him  said,  that  he  was  kept  waiting  to  do  so 
by  the  inexplicable  tardiness  of  a  certain  one  to  rise  ascend- 
ing to  her  spiritual  roost.  She  was  now  harmless  to  strike : 
Themison,  Carling,  Jarniman,  even  the  Eev.  Groseman 
Buttermore,  had  been  won  to  the  cause  of  humanity.  Her 
ascent,  considering  her  inability  to  do  further  harm  below, 
was  most  mysteriously  delayed.  Owing  to  it,  in  a  manner 
V  almost  as  mysterious,  he  was  kept  crossing  a  bridge  having 
a  slippery  bit  on  it.  Thanks  to  his  gallant  Fredi,  he  had 
found  his  feet  again.  But  there  was  a  bruise  where,  to  his 
honour,  he  felt  tenderest.  And  Eredi  away,  he  might  be 
down  again  —  for  no  love  of  a  slippery  bit,  proved  slippery, 
one  might  guess,  by  a  predecessor  or  two.  Ta-ta-ta-ta  and 
mum !  Still,  in  justice  to  the  little  woman,  she  had  been 
serviceable.  She  would  be  still  more  so,  if  a  member  of 
Parliament  now  on  his  back  —  here  we  are  with  the 
murder-eye  again! 

Nesta's  never  speaking  of  Lakelands  clouded  him  a  little, 
as  an  intimation  of  her  bent  of  mind. 

"And  does  my  girl  come  to  her  dada  to-day  ?"  he  said, 
on  the  fifth  morning  since  her  return;  prepared  with  a 
villanous  resignation  to  hear  that  this  day  she  abstained, 
though  he  had  the  wish  for  her  coming. 

"Why,  don't  you  know,"  said  she,  "we  all  meet  to  have 
tea  in  Mr.  Durance's  chambers;  and  I  walk  back  with  you, 
and  there  we  are  joined  by  mamaj  and  we  are  to  have  a 
feast  of  literary  celebrities." 


THE  MOTHER  —  THE  DAUGHTER  367 

"Colney's  selection  of  them!  And  Simeon  Fenellan,  I 
hope.     Perhaps  Dartrey.     Perhaps  .  .  .  eh  ?  " 

She  reddened.  So  Dudley  Sowerby's  unspoken  name 
could  bring  the  blush  to  her  cheeks.  Dudley  had  his 
excuses  in  his  brother's  condition.  His  father's  health, 
too,  was  —  but  this  was  Dudley  calculating.  Where  there 
are  coronets,  calculations  of  this  sort  must  needs  occur; 
just  as  where  there  are  complications.  Odd,  one  fancies 
it,  that  we  walking  along  the  pavement  of  civilized  life, 
should  be  perpetually  summoning  Orcus  to  our  aid,  for 
the  sake  of  getting  a  clear  course. 

"  And  supposing  a  fog,  my  dearie  ?  "  he  said. 

"  The  daughter  in  search  of  her  father  carries  a  lamp  to 
light  her  to  him  through  densest  fogs  as  well  as  over 
deserts,"  &c.  She  declaimed  a  long  sentence,  to  set  the 
ripple  running  in  his  features;  and  when  he  left  the  room 
for  a  last  word  with  Armandine,  she  flung  arms  round  her 
mother's  neck ,  murmuring :  "  Mother !  mother !  "  a  cry  equal 
to  "I  am  sure  I  do  right,"  and  understood  so  by  Nataly 
approving  it;  she  too  on  the  line  of  her  instinct,  without 
an  object  in  sight. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

THE   MOTHER  —  THE    DAUGHTER 

Taking  Nesta's  hand,  on  her  entry  into  his  chambers 
with  her  father,  Colney  Durance  bowed  over  it  and  kissed 
it.  The  unusual  performance  had  a  meaning;  she  felt  she 
was  praised.  It  might  be  because  she  made  herself  her 
father's  companion.  "I  can't  persuade  him  to  put  on  a 
great-coat,"  she  said.  "You  would  defeat  his  aim  at  the 
particular  waistcoat  of  his  ambition,"  said  Colney,  goaded 
to  speak,  not  anxious  to  be  heard. 

He  kept  her  beside  him,  leading  her  about  for  intro- 
ductions to  multiform  celebrities  of  both  sexes:  among 
them  the  gentleman  editing  the  Magazine  which  gave  out 
serially  The  Rival  Tongues:  and  there  was  talk  of  a 


368  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

dragon-tliroated  public's  queer  appetite  in  Letters.  The 
pained  Editor  deferentially  smiled  at  her  cheerful  mention 
of  Delphica.  "  In  book  form,  perhaps !  "  he  remarked, 
with  plaintive  resignation ;  adding :  "  You  read  it  ?  "  And 
a  lady  exclaimed :  "  We  all  read  it !  " 

But  we  are  the  elect,  who  see  signification  and  catch 
flavour;  and  we  are  reminded  of  an  insatiable  monster  how 
sometimes  capricious  is  his  gorge.  "He  may  happen  to 
be  in  the  humour  for  a  shaking!  "  Colney's  poor  consola- 
tion it  was  to  say  of  the  prospects  of  his  published  book : 
for  the  funny  monster  has  been  known  to  like  a  shaking. 

"He  takes  it  kinder  tickled,"  said  Fenellan,  joining  the 
group  and  grasping  Nesta's  hand  with  a  warmth  that 
thrilled  her  and  set  her  guessing.  "  A  taste  of  his  favour- 
ite Cayenne  lollypop,  Colney;  it  fetches  the  tear  he  loves 
to  shed,  or  it  gives  him  digestive  heat  in  the  bag  of  his 
literary  receptacle  —  fearfully  relaxed  and  enormous !  And 
no  wonder;  his  notion  of  the  attitude  for  reading,  is  to  lie 
him  down  on  his  back;  and  he  has  in  a  jiify  the  funnel  of 
the  Libraries  inserted  into  his  mouth,  and  he  feels  the 
publishers  pouring  their  gallons  through  it  unlimitedly; 
never  crying  out,  which  he  can't;  only  swelling,  which 
he's  obliged  to  do,  with  a  non-nutritious  inflation;  and 
that 's  his  intellectual  enjoyment;  bearing  a  likeness  to  the 
horrible  old  torture  of  the  baillir  cfeau  :  and  he  's  doomed 
to  perish  in  the  worst  book-form  of  dropsy.  You,  my  dear 
Colney,  have  offended  his  police  or  excise,  who  stand  by 
the  funnel,  in  touch  with  his  palate,  to  make  sure  that 
nothing  above  proof  is  poured  in;  and  there  's  your  mis- 
fortune. He  's  not  half  a  bad  fellow,  you  find  when  you 
have  n't  got  to  serve  him." 

"  Superior  to  his  official  parasites,  one  supposes ! "  Colney 
murmured. 

The  celebrities  were  unaffectedly  interested  in  a  literary 
failure  having  certain  merits ;  they  discussed  it,  to  compli- 
ment the  crownless  author;  and  the  fervider  they,  the 
more  was  he  endowed  to  read  the  meanness  prompting  the 
generosity.  Publication  of  a  book  is  the  philosopher's 
lantern  upon  one's  fellows. 

Colney  was  caught  away  from  his  private  manufactory 
of  acids  by  hearing  Simeon  Fenellan  relate  to  Victor  some 


THE  MOTHER  —  THE  DAUGHTER  369 

of  the  recent  occurrences  at  Brighton.  Simeon's  tone  was 
unsatisfying;  Colney  would  have  the  word;  he  was  like 
steel  on  the  grindstone  for  such  a  theme  of  our  national 
grotesque-sublime. 

"That  Demerara  Supple-jack,  Victor!  Don't  listen  to 
Simeon;  he's  a  man  of  lean  narrative,  fit  to  chronicle 
political  party  wrangles  and  such  like  crop  of  carcase 
prose:  this  is  epical.  In  Drink  we  have  Old  England's 
organic  Epic;  Greeks  and  Trojans;  Parliamentary  Olym- 
pus, ennobled  brewers,  nasal  fanatics,  all  the  machinery 
to  hand.  Keep  a  straight  eye  on  the  primary  motives  of 
man,  you  '11  own  the  English  produce  the  material  for 
proud  verse;  they're  alive  there!  Dartrey's  Demerara 
makes  a  pretty  episode  of  the  battle.  I  have  n't  seen  it 
—  if  it 's  possible  to  look  on  it :  but  I  hear  it  is  flexible,  of 
a  vulgar  appearance  in  repose,  Jove's  lightning  at  one 
time,  the  thong  of  ^Eacus  at  another.  Observe  Dartrey 
marching  off  to  the  Station,  for  the  purpose  of  laying  his 
miraculous  weapon  across  the  shoulders  of  a  son  of  Mars, 
who  had  offended.  But  we  have  his  name,  my  dear  Victor! 
His  name,  Simeon?  —  Worrell;  a  Major  Worrell:  his 
offence  being  probably,  that  he  obtained  military  instruc- 
tion in  the  Service,  and  left  it  at  his  convenience,  for  our 
poor  patch  and  tatter  British  Army  to  take  in  his  place 
another  young  student,  who  '11  grow  up  to  do  similarly. 
And  Dartrey,  we  assume,  is  off  to  stop  that  system.  You 
behold  Sir  Dartrey  twirling  the  weapon  in  preparatory 
fashion;  because  he  is  determined  we  shall  have  an  army 
of  trained  officers  instead  of  infant  amateurs  heading  heroic 
louts.  Not  a  thought  of  Beer  in  Dartrey!  —  always  un- 
patriotic, you  '11  say.  Plato  entreats  his  absent  mistress 
to  fix  eyes  on  a  star :  eyes  on  Beer  for  the  uniting  of  you 
English!  I  tell  you  no  poetic  fiction.  Seeing  him  on  his 
way,  thus  terribly  armed,  and  knowing  his  intent,  Venus, 
to  shield  a  former  favourite  servant  of  Mars,  conjured  the 
most  diverting  of  interventions,  in  the  shape  of  a  young 
woman  in  a  poke-bonnet,  and  Skepsey,  her  squire,  march- 
ing with  a  dozen  or  so,  informing  bedevilled  mankind  of 
the  hideousness  of  our  hymnification  when  it  is  not  under 
secluding  sanction  of  the  Edifice,  and  challenging  criti- 
cism ;  and  that  was  hard  by,  and  real  English,  in  the  form 

24 


870  ONE  OF  OUR  COKQ  HEROES 

of  bludgeons,  wielded  by  a  battalion  of  the  national  idol 
Bungay  Beervat's  boys;  and  tliey  fell  upon  the  hymners. 
Here  you  fill  in  with  pastoral  similes.  They  struck  the 
maid  adored  by  Skepsey.  And  that  was  the  blow  which 
slew  them!  Our  little  man  drove  into  the  press  with  a 
pair  of  fists  able  to  do  their  work.  A  valiant  skiff  upon  a 
sea  of  enemies,  he  was  having  it  on  the  nob,  and  suddenly 
the  Demerara  lightened.  It  flailed  to  thresh.  Enough  to 
say,  brains  would  have  come.  The  Bungay s  made  a  show 
of  fight.  No  lack  of  blood  in  them,  to  stock  a  raw  shil- 
ling's worth  or  gush  before  Achilles  raging.  You  perceive 
the  picture,  you  can  almost  sing  the  ballad.  We  want  only 
a  few  names  of  the  fallen.  It  was  the  carving  of  a  maitre 
chef,  according  to  Skepsey :  right  —  left  —  and  point,  with 
supreme  precision:  they  fell,  accurately  sliced  from  the 
joint.  Having  done  with  them ,  Dartrey  tossed  the  Deme- 
rara to  Skepsey,  and  washed  his  hands  of  battle ;  and  he 
let  his  major  go  unscathed.  Phlebotomy  sufiicient  for  the 
4  day!" 

Nesta's  ears  hummed  with  the  name  of  Major  Worrell. 

"  Skepsey  did  come  back  to  London  with  a  rather  dam- 
aged frontispiece,"  Victor  said.  "He  can't  have  joined 
those  people  ?  " 

"They  may  suit  one  of  your  militant  peacemakers," 
interposed  Eenellan.  "  The  most  placable  creatures  alive, 
and  the  surest  for  getting-up  a  shindy." 

"  Suit  him !  They  're  the  scandal  of  our  streets."  Victor 
was  pricked  with  a  jealousy  of  them  for  beguiling  him  of 
his  trusty  servant. 

"Look  at  your  country,  see  where  it  shows  its  vitality," 
said  Colney.  "You  don't  see  elsewhere  any  vein  in  move- 
ment —  movement, "  he  harped  on  the  word  Victor  con- 
stantly employed  to  express  the  thing  he  wanted  to  see. 
Think  of  that,  when  the  procession  sets  your  teeth  on 
edge.  They  're  honest  foes  of  vice,  and  they  move :  —  in 
England  !  Pulpit-preaching  has  no  eflect.  For  gross  mal- 
adies, gross  remedies.  You  may  judge  of  what  you  are  by 
the  quality  of  the  cure.  Puritanism,  I  won't  attempt  to 
paint  —  it  would  barely  be  decent,  but  compare  it  with  the 
spectacle  of  English  frivolity,  and  you  '11  admit  it  to  be  the 
best  show  you  make.     It  may  still  be  the  saving  of  you  — 


THE   MOTHER  —  THE  DAUGHTER  371 

on  the  level  of  the  orderly  ox:  I  've  not  observed  that  it 
aims  at  higher.  —  And  talking  of  the  pulpit,  Barmby  is  off 
to  the  East,  has  accepted  a  Shoreditch  curacy,  Skepsey 
tells  me." 

"  So  there 's  the  reason  for  our  not  seeing  him!  "  Victor 
turned  to  Nesta. 

"Papa,  you  won't  be  angry  with  Skepsey  if  he  has  joined 
those  people,"  said  Nesta.  "I'm  sure  he  thinks  of  serv- 
ing his  country,  Mr.  Durance." 

Colney  smiled  on  her.     "And  you  too  ?  " 

"  If  women  knew  how !  " 

"  They  're  hitting  on  more  ways  at  present  than  the  men 
—  in  England." 

"But,  Mr.  Durance,  it  speaks  well  for  England  when 
they  're  allowed  the  chance  here." 

"  Good  !  "   Fenellan  exclaimed.     "  And   that   upsets  his  / 

placement  of  the  modern  national  genders :   Germany  mas-         ^ 
culine,  France  feminine.  Old  England  what  remains." 

Victor  ruffled  and  reddened  on  his  shout  of  "  Neuter  ?  " 

Their  circle  widened.  Nesta  knew  she  was  on  promo- 
tion, by  her  being  led  about  and  introduced  to  ladies. 
They  were  encouraging  with  her.  One  of  them,  a  Mrs. 
Marina  Floyer,  had  recently  raised  a  standard  of  feminine 
insurrection.  She  said:  "I  hear  your  praises  from  Mr. 
Durance.  He  rarely  praises.  You  have  shown  capacity 
to  meditate  on  the  condition  of  women,  he  says." 

Nesta  drew  a  shorter  breath,  with  a  hope  at  heart.      She 
speculated  in  the  dark,  as  to  whether  her  aim  to  serve  and 
help  was  not  so  friendless.    And  did  Mr.  Durance  approve  ? 
But  surely  she  stood  in  a  glorious  England  if  there  were 
men  and  women  to  welcome  a  girl  to  their  councils.     Oh !        ^ 
that  is  the  broad  free  England  where  gentlemen  and  gentle-         I 
women  accept  of  the  meanest  aid  to  cleanse  the  land  of  its        / 
iniquities,  and  do  not  suffer  shame  to  smite  a  young  face        ' 
for  touching  upon  horrors  with  a  pure  design. 

She  cried  in  her  bosom :  I  feel !  She  had  no  other  ex- 
pression for  that  which  is  as  near  as  great  natures  may 
come  to  the  conceiving  of  the  celestial  spirit  from  an  emis- 
sary angel ;  and  she  trembled,  the  lire  ran  through  her.  It 
seemed  to  her,  that  she  would  be  called  to  help  or  that 
certainly  they  were  nearing  to  an  effacement  of  the  woeful- 


372  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

lest  of  evils;  and  if  not  helping,  it  would  still  be  a  blessed- 
ness for  her  to  kneel  thanking  heaven. 

Society  was  being  attacked  and  defended.  She  could  but 
studiously  listen.  Her  father  was  listening.  The  assail- 
ant was  a  lady;  and  she  had  a  hearing,  although  she 
treated  Society  as  a  discrowned  monarch  on  trial  for  an 
offence  against  a  more  precious:  viz.,  the  individual 
cramped  by  brutish  laws:  the  individual  with  the  ideas 
of  our  time,  righteously  claiming  expansion  out  of  the 
clutches  of  a  narrow  old-world  disciplinarian  —  that  giant 
hypocrite  !  She  flung  the  gauntlet  at  externally  venerable 
Institutions;  and  she  had  a  hearing,  where  horrification, 
execration,  the  foul  Furies  of  Conservatism  would  in  a 
shortly  antecedent  day  have  been  hissing  and  snakily 
lashing,  hounding  her  to  expulsion.  Mrs.  Marina  Floyer 
gravely  seconded  her.  Colney  did  the  same.  Victor 
turned  sharp  on  him.  "Yes,"  Colney  said;  "we  unfold 
the  standard  of  extremes  in  this  country,  to  get  a  single 
step  taken:  that 's  how  we  move:  we  threaten  death  to  get 
footway.     ISiow,  mark:  Society's  errors  will  be  admitted." 

A  gentleman  spoke.  He  began  by  admitting  Society's 
errors.  Nevertheless,  it  so  distinctly  exists  for  the  com- 
mon good,  that  we  may  say  of  Society  in  relation  to  the 
individual,  it  is  the  body  to  the  soul.  We  may  wash, 
trim,  purify,  but  we  must  not  maim  it.  The  assertion  of 
our  individuality  in  opposition  to  the  Government  of 
Society  —  this  existing  Society  —  is  a  toss  of  the  cap  for 
the  erasure  of  our  civilization,  et  csetera. 

Platitudes  can  be  of  intense  interest  if  they  approach 
our  case.  —  But,  if  you  please,  we  ask  permission  to  wash, 
trim,  purify,  and  we  do  not  get  it.  —  But  you  have  it !  — 
Because  we  take  it  at  our  peril;  and  you,  who  are  too 
cowardly  to  grant  or  withhold,  call-up  the  revolutionary 
from  the  pits  by  your  slackness :  —  &c.  There  was  a  pretty 
hot  debate.  Both  assailant  and  defendant,  to  Victor's 
thinking,  spoke  well,  and  each  the  right  thing:  and  he 
could  have  made  use  of  both,  but  he  could  answer  neither. 
He  beat  about  for  the  cause  of  this  deficiency,  and  dis- 
covered it  in  his  position.  Mentally,  he  was  on  the  side 
of  Society.  Yet  he  was  annoyed  to  find  the  attack  was  so 
easily  answerable  when  the  defence  unfolded.     But  it  was 


THE  MOTHER  —  THE  DAUGHTER  373 

absurd  to  expect  it  would  not  be.  And  in  fact,  a  position 
secretly  rebellious  is  equal  to  water  on  the  brain  for  stul- 
tifying us. 

Before  the  controversy  was  over,  a  note  in  Nataly's 
handwriting  called  him  home.  She  wrote:  "Make  my 
excuses.  C.  D.  will  give  Nesta  and  some  lady  dinner. 
A  visitor  here.  Come  alone,  and  without  delay.  Quite 
well,  robust.  Impatient  to  consult  with  you,  nothing 
else." 

Nesta  was  happy  to  stay ;  and  Victor  set  forth: 

The  visitor  ?  plainly  Dudley.  Nataly's  trusting  the  girl 
to  the  chance  of  some  lady  being  present,  was  unlike  her. 
Dudley  might  be  tugging  at  the  cord ;  and  the  recent  con- 
versation upon  Society  rendered  one  of  its  gilt  pillars 
particularly  estimable.  —  A  person  in  the  debate  had  de- 
clared this  modern  protest  on  behalf  of  individualism  to 
represent  Society's  Criminal  Trial.  And  it  is  likely  to  be 
a  long  one.  And  good  for  the  world,  that  we  see  such  a 
Trial !  —  Well  said  or  not,  undoubtedly  Society  is  an  old 
criminal :  not  much  more  advanced  than  the  state  of  spiri- 
tual worship  where  bloody  sacrifice  was  offered  to  a  hungry 
Lord.  But  it  has  a  case  for  pleading.  We  may  liken  it, 
as  we  have  it  now,  to  the  bumping  lumberer's  raft;  suita- 
ble along  torrent  waters  until  we  come  to  smoother.  Are 
we  not  on  waters  of  a  certain  smoothness  at  the  reflecting 
level  ?  —  enough  to  justify  demands  for  a  vessel  of  finer 
design.  If  Society  is  to  subsist,  it  must  have  the  human 
with  the  logical  argument  against  the  cry  of  the  free-flags, 
instead  of  presenting  a  block's  obtuseness.  That  you  need 
not  hesitate  to  believe,  will  be  rolled  downward  and  dis- 
integrated, sooner  than  later.  A  Society  based  on  the 
logical  concrete  of  humane  considerateness:  —  a  Society 
prohibiting  to  Mrs.  Burman  her  wielding  of  a  life-long 
rod.  .  .  . 

The  personal  element  again  to  confuse  inquiry !  —  And 
Skepsey  and  Barmby  both  of  them  bent  on  doing  work 
without  inquiry  of  any  sort !  They  were  enviable :  they 
were  good  fellows.  Victor  clung  to  the  theme  because  it 
hinted  of  next  door  to  his  lost  Idea.  He  rubbed  the  back 
of  his  head,  fancying  a  throb  there.  —  Are  civilized  crea- 
tures incapable  of  abstract  thought  when  their  social  posi- 


374  ONE  OF  OTJK  CONQUEKORS 

tion  is  dubious  ?  For  if  so,  we  never  can  be  quit  of  those 
we  forsake.  —  Apparently  Mrs.  Burman's  unfathomed 
power  lay  in  her  compelling  him  to  summon  the  devilish 
in  himself  and  play  upon  the  impish  in  Society,  that  he 
might  overcome  her. 

Victor's  house-door  stopped  this  current. 

Nataly  took  his  embrace. 

"  Nothing  wrong  ?  "  he  said,  and  saw  the  something.  It 
was  a  favourable  moment  to  tell  her  what  she  might  not 
at  another  time  regard  as  a  small  affair.  "News  in  the 
City  to-day  of  that  South  London  borough  being  vacated. 
Quatley  urges  me.  A  death  again  !  I  saw  Pempton,  too. 
Will  you  credit  me  when  I  tell  you  he  carries  his  infatua- 
tion so  far,  that  he  has  been  investing  in  Japanese  and 
Chinese  Loans,  because  they  are  less  meat-eaters  than 
others,  and  vegetarians  are  more  stable,  and  outlast  us  all ! 
—  Dudley  the  visitor  ?  " 

"Mr.  Sowerby  has  been  here,"  she  said,  in  a  shaking  low 
voice. 

Victor  held  her  hand  and  felt  a  squeeze  more  nervous 
than  affectionate. 

"To  consult  with  me,"  she  added.  "My  maid  will  go 
at  ten  to  bring  Nesta;  Mr.  Durance  I  can  count  on,  to  see 
her  safe  home.     Ah  !  "  she  wailed. 

Victor  nodded,  saying:  "I  guess.  And,  my  love,  you 
will  receive  Mrs.  John  Cormyn  to-morrow  morning.  I 
can't  endure  gaps.  Gaps  in  our  circle  must  never  be.  Do 
1  guess  ?  —  I  spoke  to  Colney  about  bringing  her  home." 

Nataly  sighed:  "Ah!  make  what  provision  we  will  f 
Evil Mr.  Sowerby  has  had  a  great  deal  to  bear." 

"A  worldling  may  think  so." 

Her  breast  heaved,  and  the  wave  burst :  but  her  restrain- 
ing of  tears  froze  her  speech. 

"  Victor !  Our  Nesta !  Mr.  Sowerby  is  unable  to  explain. 
And  how  the  Miss  Duvidnej'-s !  ...  At  that  Brighton  !  " 
— The  voice  he  heard  was  not  his  darling's  deep  rich  note, 
it  had  dropped  to  toneless  hoarseness :  "  She  has  been  per- 
mitted to  make  acquaintance  —  she  has  been  seen  riding 
with  —  she  has  called  upon  —  Oh  !  it  is  one  of  those 
abandoned  women.  In  her  house!  Our  girl!  Our  Nesta! 
She  was  insulted  by  a  man  in  the  woman's  house.     She  is 


THE  MOTHER  —  THE  DAUGHTER  376 

talked  of  over  Brighton.  The  mother!  —  the  daughter! 
And  grant  me  this  —  that  never  was  girl  more  carefully 
.  .  .  never  till  she  was  taken  from  me.  Oh!  do  not 
forget.  You  will  defend  me?  You  will  say  that  her 
mother  did  with  all  her  soul  strive  ...  It  is  not  a 
rumour.  Mr.  Sowerby  has  had  it  confirmed."  A  sob 
caught  her  voice. 

Victor's  hands  caressed  to  console:  "Dudley  does  not 
propose  to  .  .  .  ?  " 

"Nesta  must  promise  .  .  .  But  how  it  happened  ? 
How !  An  acquaintance  with  —  contact  with  !  —  Oh  ! 
cruel !  "  Each  time  she  ceased  speaking,  the  wrinkles  of  a 
shiver  went  over  her,  and  the  tone  was  of  tears  coming, 
but  she  locked  them  in. 

"An  accident!"  said  Victor;  "some  misunderstanding 
—  there  can't  be  harm.  Of  course,  she  promises  —  has  n't 
to  promise.  How  could  a  girl  distinguish  !  He  does  not 
cast  blame  on  her  ?  " 

"Dear,  if  you  would  go  down  to  Dartrey  to-morrow. 
He  knows:  —  it  is  over  the  Clubs  there;  he  will  tell  you, 
before  a  word  to  Nesta.  Innocent,  yes!  Mr.  Sowerby 
has  not  to  be  assured  of  that.  Ignorant  of  the  character  of 
the  dreadful  woman  ?  Ah,  if  I  could  ever  in  anything 
think  her  ignorant!  She  frightens  me.  Mr.  Sowerby  is 
indulgent.  He  does  me  justice.  My  duty  to  her  —  I  must 
defend  myself  —  has  been  my  first  thought.  I  said  in  my 
prayers  —  she  at  least !  .  .  .  We  have  to  see  the  more  than 
common  reasons  why  she,  of  all  girls,  should  —  he  did  not 
hint  it,  he  was  delicate:  her  name  must  not  be  public." 

"Yes,  yes,  Dudley  is  without  parallel  as  a  gentleman," 
said  Victor.  "  It  does  not  suit  me  to  hear  the  word  '  in- 
dulgent.' My  dear,  if  you  were  down  there,  you  would 
discover  that  the  talk  was  the  talk  of  two  or  three  men 
seeing  our  girl  ride  by  —  and  she  did  ride  with  a  troop : 
why,  we  've  watched  them  along  the  parade,  often.  Clear 
as  day  how  it  happened  !     I  '11  go  down  early  to-morrow." 

He  fancied  Xataly  was  appeased.  And  even  out  of  this 
annoyance,  there  was  the  gain  of  her  being  won  to  favour 
Dudley's  hitherto  but  tolerated  suit. 

Nataly  also  had  the  fancy  that  the  calm  following  on 
her  anguish  was  a  moderation  of  it.     She  was  kept  strung 


376  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEROES 

to  confide  in  her  girl  by  the  recent  indebtedness  to  her  for 
words  heavenly  in  the  strengthening  comfort  they  gave. 
But  no  sooner  was  she  alone  than  her  torturing  perplexi- 
ties and  her  abasement  of  the  hours  previous  to  Victor's 
coming  returned. 

For  a  girl  of  ISTesta's  head  could  not  be  deceived;  she 
had  come  home  with  a  woman's  intelligence  of  the  world, 
hard  knowledge  of  it  —  a  knowledge  drawn  from  foul 
wells,  the  unhappy  mother  imagined :  she  dreaded  to  probe 
to  the  depth  of  it.  She  had  in  her  wounded  breast  the 
world's  idea,  that  corruption  must  come  of  the  contact  with 
impurity. 

Nataly  renewed  her  cry  of  despair :  "  The  mother !  —  the 
daughter  !  "  —  her  sole  revelation  of  the  heart's  hollows  in 
her  stammered  speaking  to  Victor. 

She  thanked  heaven  for  the  loneliness  of  her  bed,  where 
she  could  repeat :  "  The  mother !  —  the  daughter  !  "  hear- 
ing the  world's  words:  — the  daughter  excused,  by  reason 
of  her  having  such  a  mother;  the  mother  unpitied  for  the 
bruiting  of  her  brazen  daughter's  name:  but  both  alike 
consigned  to  the  corners  of  the  world's  dust-heaps.  She 
cried  out  that  her  pride  was  broken.  Her  pride,  her  last 
support  of  life,  had  gone  to  pieces.  The  tears  she  re- 
strained in  Victor's  presence,  were  called  on  to  come  now, 
and  she  had  none.  It  might  be  that  she  had  not  strength 
for  weeping.  She  was  very  weak.  Rising  from  bed  to 
lock  her  door  against  Nesta's  entry  to  the  room  on  her 
return  at  night,  she  could  hardly  stand:  a  chill  and  a 
clouding  overcame  her.  The  quitted  bed  seemed  the 
haven  of  a  drifted  wreck  to  reach. 

Victor  tried  the  handle  of  a  locked  door  in  the  dark  of 
the  early  winter  morning.  "The  mother!  —  the  daugh- 
ter !  "  had  swung  a  pendulum  for  some  time  during  the 
night  in  him,  too.  He  would  rather  have  been  subjected 
to  the  spectacle  of  tears  than  have  heard  that  toneless 
voice,  as  it  were  the  dry  torrent-bed  rolling  blocks  instead 
of  melodious,  if  afflicting,  waters. 

He  told  Nesta  not  to  disturb  her  mother,  and  murmured 
of  a  headache:  "Though,  upon  my  word,  the  best  cure  for 
mama  would  be  a  look  into  Fredi's  eyes  ! "  he  said,  embrac- 
ing his  girl,  quite  believing  in  her,  just  a  little  afraid  of  her. 


NATALY,   NESTA,   AND  DARTREY  FENELLAN      377 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

NATALT,   JSTESTA,    AND    DARTREY    FENELLAK 

Pleasant  things,  that  come  to  us  too  late  for  our  savour 
of  the  sweetness  in  them,  toll  ominously  of  life  on  the  last 
walk  to  its  end.  Yesterday,  before  Dudley  Sowerby's 
visit,  Xataly  would  have  been  stirred  where  the  tears  we 
shed  for  happiness  or  repress  at  a  flattery  dwell  when  see- 
ing her  friend  Mrs.  John  Cormyn  enter  her  boudoir  and 
hearing  her  speak  repentantly,  most  tenderly.  Mrs.  John 
said:  "You  will  believe  I  have  suffered,  dear;  I  am  half 
my  weight,  I  do  think :  "  and  she  did  not  set  the  smile  of 
responsive  humour  moving ;  although  these  two  ladies  had 
a  key  of  laughter  between  them.  Nataly  took  her  kiss ; 
held  her  hand,  and  at  the  parting  kissed  her.  She  would 
rather  have  seen  her  friend  than  not;  so  far  she  differed 
from  a  corpse ;  but  she  was  near  the  likeness  to  the  dead  in 
the  insensibility  to  any  change  of  light  shining  on  one 
who  best  loved  darkness  and  silence.  She  cried  to  herself 
wilfully,  that  her  pride  was  broken:  as  women  do  when 
they  spurn  at  the  wounding  of  a  dignity  they  cannot  pro- 
tect and  die  to  see  bleeding;  for  in  it  they  live. 

The  cry  came  of  her  pride  unbroken,  sore  bruised,  and 
after  a  certain  space  for  recovery  combative.  She  said: 
Any  expiation  I  could  offer  where  I  did  injury,  I  would 
not  refuse;  I  would  humble  myself  and  bless  heaven  for 
being  able  to  pay  my  debt  —  what  I  can  of  it.  All  I  con- 
tend against  is,  injustice.  And  she  sank  into  sensational 
protests  of  her  anxious  care  of  her  daughter,  too  proud 
to  phrase  them. 

Her  one  great  affliction,  the  scourging  affliction  of  her 
utter  loneliness;  — an  outcast  from  her  family;  daily,  and 
she  knew  not  how,  more  shut  away  from  the  man  she  loved  j 
now  shut  away  from  her  girl ;  —  seemed  under  the  hand  of 
the  angel  of  God.  The  abandonment  of  her  by  friends, 
was  merely  the  light  to  show  it.  ! 

Midday's  post  brought  her  a  letter  from  Priscilla 
Graves,  entreating  to  be  allowed  to  call  on  her  next  day. 


378  ONE  OF  OUR  COKQTJERORS 

—  We  are  not  so  easily  cast  off !  Nataly  said,  bitterly,  in 
relation  to  the  lady  whose  offending  had  not  been  so  great. 
She  wrote:  "Come,  if  sure  that  you  sincerely  wish  to." 

Having  fasted,  she  ate  at  lunch  in  her  dressing-room, 
with  some  taste  of  the  food,  haunted  by  an  accusation  of 
gluttony  because  of  her  eating  at  all,  and  a  vile  confession, 
that  she  was  enabled  to  eat,  owing  to  the  receipt  of  Pris- 
cilla^s  empty  letter:  for  her  soul's  desire  was  to  be  doing 
a  deed  of  expiation,  and  the  macerated  flesh  seemed  her 
assurance  to  herself  of  the  courage  to  make  amends.  —  I 
must  have  some  strength,  she  said  wearifully,  in  apology 
.  for  the  morsel  consumed. 
/  Nesta's  being  in  the  house  with  her,  became  an  excessive 
irritation.  Doubts  of  the  girl's  possible  honesty  to  speak 
a  reptile  truth  under  question ;  amazement  at  her  boldness 
to  speak  it;  hatred  of  the  mouth  that  could;  and  loathing 
of  the  words,  the  theme;  and  abomination  of  herself  for 
conjuring  fictitious  images  to  rouse  real  emotions,  —  all  ran 
counterthreads,  that  produced  a  mad  pattern  in  the  mind, 
affrighting  to  reason :  and  then,  for  its  preservation,  reason 
took  a  superrational  leap,  and  ascribed  the  terrible  injus- 
tice of  this  last  cruel  stroke  to  the  divine  scourge,  recog- 
nized divine  by  the  selection  of  the  mortal  spot  for 
chastisement.  She  clasped  her  breast  and  said:  It  is 
mortal.     And  that  calmed  her. 

She  said,  smiling :  I  never  felt  my  sin  until  this  blow 
came  !  Therefore  the  blow  was  proved  divine.  Ought  it 
not  to  be  welcomed  ?  —  and  she  appearing  no  better  than 
one  of  those,  the  leprous  of  the  sex!  And  brought  to 
V  acknowledgement  of  the  likeness  by  her  daughter  ! 
\  Nataly  drank  the  poison  distilled  from  her  exclamations 
and  was  ice.  She  had  denied  herself  to  Nesta's  redoubled 
petition.  Nesta  knocking  at  the  door  a  third  time  and 
calling,  tore  the  mother  two  ways :  to  have  her  girl  on  her 
breast  or  snap  their  union  in  a  word  with  an  edge.  She 
heard  the  voice  of  Dartrey  Fenellan. 

He  was  admitted.  "No,  dear,"  she  said  to  Nesta;  and 
Nesta's,  "My  own  mother,"  consentingly  said,  in  tender 
resignation,  as  she  retired,  sprang  a  stinging  tear  to  the 
mother's  eyelids.' 

Dartrey  looked  at  the  door  closing  on  the  girl. 


KATALY,   KESTA,   AND  DARTEEY  FENELLAN      379 

"  Is  it  a  very  low  woman  ?  "  Nataly  asked  him  in  a 
Church,  whisper,  with  a  face  abashed. 

"It  is  not,"  said  he,  quick  to  meet  any  abruptness. 

"She  must  be  cunning." 

"In  the  ordinary  way.  We  say  it  of  Puss  before  the 
hounds." 

"To  deceive  a  girl  like  Nesta!  " 

"She  has  done  no  harm." 

"Dartrey,  you  speak  to  a  mother.  You  have  seen  the 
woman  ?     She  is  ?  —  ah!  " 

"She  is  womanly,  womanly." 

"Quite  one  of  those  .  .  .?" 

"My  dear  soul !  You  can't  shake  them  off  in  that  way. 
She  is  one  of  us.  If  we  have  the  class,  we  can't  escape 
from  it.  They  are  not  to  bear  all  the  burden  because  they 
exist.  We  are  the  bigger  debtors.  I  tell  you  she  is 
womanly." 

"It  sounds  like  horrid  cynicism." 

"Friends  of  mine  would  abuse  it  for  the  reverse." 

"  Do  not  make  me  hate  your  chivalry.  This  woman  is  a 
rod  on  my  back.  Provided  only  she  has  not  dropped 
venom  into  Nesta's  mind  !  " 

"Don't  fear!" 

"  Can  you  tell  me  you  think  she  has  done  no  harm  to 
my  girl?" 

"  To  Nesta  herself  ?  —  not  any :  not  to  a  girl  like  your 
girl." 

"  To  my  girl's  name  ?  Speak  at  once.  But  I  know  she 
has.  She  induced  Nesta  to  go  to  her  house.  My  girl  was 
insulted  in  this  woman's  house." 

Dartrey's  forehead  ridged  with  his  old  fury  and  a  gust 
of  present  contempt.  "  I  can  tell  you  this,  that  the  fellow 
who  would  think  harm  of  it,  knowing  the  facts,  is  not 
worthy  of  touching  the  tips  of  the  fingers  of  your  girl." 

"  She  is  talked  of  !" 

"  A  good-looking  girl  out  riding  with  a  handsome  woman 
on  a  parade  of  idlers  !  " 

"The  woman  is  notorious."    Kataly  said  it  shivering. 

He  shook  his  head.     "Not  true." 

"  She  has  an  air  of  a  lady  ?  " 

"  She  sits  a  horse  well." 


380  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

"  Would  she  to  any  extent  deceive  me  —  impose  on  me 
here  ?  " 

"No." 

"  Ah  !  "  Nataly  moaned. 

"But  what?"  said  Dartrey.  "There  was  no  pretence. 
Her  style  is  not  worse  than  that  of  some  we  have  seen. 
There  was  no  effort  to  deceive.  The  woman  's  plain  for 
you  and  me  to  read,  she  has  few  of  the  arts;  one  or  two 
tricks,  if  you  like:  and  these  were  not  needed  for  use. 
There  are  women  who  have  them,  and  have  not  been  driven 
or  let  slip  into  the  wilderness." 

"  Yes ;  I  know  !  —  those  ideas  of  yours  ! "  Nataly  had 
once  admired  him  for  his  knightliness  toward  the  weakest 
women  and  the  women  underfoot.  "You  have  spoken  to 
this  woman  ?     She  boasted  of  acquaintance  with  Nesta  ?  " 

"She  thanked  God  for  having  met  her." 

"  Is  it  one  of  the  hysterical  creatures  ?  " 

Mrs.  Marsett  appeared  fronting  Dartrey. 

He  laughed  to  himself.  "  A  clever  question.  There  is 
a  leaning  to  excitement  of  manner  at  times.  It 's  not 
hysteria.     Allow  for  her  position." 

Nataly  took  the  unintended  blow,  and  bowed  to  it ;  and 
still  more  harshly  said:  "What  rank  of  life  does  the 
woman  come  from  ?  " 

"  The  class  educated  for  a  skittish  career  by  your  popular 
Stage  and  your  Book-stalls.     I  am  not  precise  ?  " 

"  Leave  Mr.  Durance.  Is  she  in  any  degree  commonly 
well  bred?  .  .   .  behaviour,  talk  —  her  English." 

"I  trench  on  Mr.  Durance  replying.  Her  English  is 
passable.     You  may  hear  ..." 

"  Everywhere,  of  course  !  And  this  woman  of  slipshod 
English  and  excited  manners  imposed  upon  Nesta!  " 

"It  would  not  be  my  opinion." 

"Did  not  impose  on  her!  " 

"Not  many  would  impose  on  Nesta  Radnor  for  long." 

"  Think  what  that  says,  Dartrey !  " 

"You  have  had  a  detestable  version  of  the  story." 

"Because  an  excited  creature  thanks  God  to  you  for 
having  met  her!  " 

"She  may.  She  's  a  better  woman  for  having  met  her. 
Don't  suppose  we  're  for  supernatural  conversions.     The 


NATAJLY,  NEST  A,   AND  DARTRE  Y  FENELLAN      381 

woman  makes  no  show  of  that.  But  she  has  found  a  good 
soul  among  her  sex  —  her  better  self  in  youth,  as  one 
guesses ;  and  she  is  grateful  —  feels  farther  from  exile  in 
consequence.  She  has  found  a  lady  to  take  her  by  the 
hand !  —  not  a  common  case.  She  can  never  go  to  the 
utterly  bad  after  knowing  Nesta.  I  forget  if  she  says  it; 
I  say  it.  You  have  heard  the  story  from  one  of  your 
conventional  gentlemen." 

"  A  true  gentleman.  I  have  reason  to  thank  him.  He 
has  not  your  ideas  on  these  matters,  Dartrey.  He  is  very 
sensitive  ...  on  Nesta's  behalf." 

"  With  reference  to  marriage.  I  '11  own  I  prefer  another 
kind  of  gentleman.  I  've  had  my  experience  of  that  kind 
of  gentleman.  Many  of  the  kind  have  added  their  spot  to 
the  outcasts  abominated  for  uncleanness  —  in  holy  unction. 
Many?  —  I  won't  say  all;  but  men  who  consent  to  hear 
black  words  pitched  at  them,  and  help  to  set  good  women 
facing  away  from  them,  are  pious  dolts  or  rascal  dogs  of 
hypocrites.  They,  if  you  '11  let  me  quote  Colney  Durance 
to  you  to-day  —  and  how  is  it  he  is  not  in  favour  ?  —  they 
are  tempting  the  Lord  to  turn  the  pillars  of  Society  into 
pillars  of  salt.  Down  comes  the  house.  And  priests  can 
rest  in  sight  of  it!  —  They  ought  to  be  dead  against  the 
sanctimony  that  believes  it  excommunicates  when  it  curses. 
The  relationship  is  not  dissolved  so  cheaply,  though  our 
Society  affects  to  think  it  is.  Barmby  's  off  to  the  East 
End  of  this  London,  Victor  informs  me :  —  good  fellow ! 
And  there  he  '11  be  groaning  over  our  vicious  nature. 
Nature  is  not  more  responsible  for  vice  than  she  is  for 
inhumanity.  Both  bad,  but  the  latter 's  the  worse  of  the 
two." 

Nataly  interposed:  "I  see  the  contrast,  and  see  whom 
it 's  to  strike." 

Dartrey  sent  a  thought  after  his  meaning.  "Hardly 
that.  Let  it  stand.  He  's  only  one  with  the  world :  but 
he  shares  the  criminal  infamy  for  crushing  hope  out  of  its 
frailest  victims.  They  're  that  —  no  sentiment.  What  a 
world,  too,  look  behind  it!  —  brutal  because  brutish.  The 
world  may  go  hang:  we  expect  more  of  your  gentleman. 
To  hear  of  Nesta  down  there,  and  doubt  that  she  was 
about  good  work;  —  and  come  complaining!     He  had  the 


382  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUEEOES 

privilege  of  speaking  to  her,  remonstrating,  if  lie  wished. 
There  are  men  who  think  —  men !  —  the  plucking  of  sinners 
out  of  the  mire  a  dirty  business.  They  depute  it  to  cer- 
tain officials.  And  your  women  —  it 's  the  taste  of  the 
world  to  have  them  educated  so,  that  they  can  as  little 
take  the  humane  as  the  enlightened  view.  Except,  by 
the  way,  sometimes,  in  secret;  —  they  have  a  sisterly 
breast.  In  secret,  they  do  occasionally  think  as  they  feel. 
In  public,  the  brass  mask  of  the  Idol  they  call  Propriety 
commands  or  supplies  their  feelings  and  thoughts.  I 
won't  repeat  my  reasons  for  educating  them  differently. 
At  present  we  have  but  half  the  woman  to  go  through  life 
with  —  and  thank  you." 

Dartrey  stopped.  "Don't  be  disturbed,"  he  added. 
"There  's  no  ground  for  alarm.     Not  of  any  sort." 

Nataly  said :  "  What  name  ?  " 

"Her  name  is  Mrs.  Marsett." 

"The  name  is  .  .  .?" 

"  Captain  Marsett :  will  be  Sir  Edward.  He  came  back 
from  the  Continent  yesterday." 

A  fit  of  shuddering  seized  Nataly.  It  grew  in  violence, 
and  speaking  out  of  it,  with  a  pause  of  sickly  empty 
chatter  of  the  jaws,  she  said :  "  Always  that  name  ?  " 

"Before  the  maiden  name  ?    May  have  been  or  not." 

"  Not,  you  say  ?  " 

"I  don't  accurately  know." 

Dartrey  sprang  to  his  legs.  "  My  dear  soul !  dear  friend 
—  one  of  the  best !  if  we  go  on  fencing  in  the  dark,  there  '11 
be  wounds.  Your  way  of  taking  this  affair  disappointed 
me.  Now  I  understand.  It 's  the  disease  of  a  trouble,  to 
fly  at  comparisons.  No  real  one  exists.  I  wished  to  pro- 
tect the  woman  from  a  happier  sister's  judgement,  to  save 
you  from  alarm  concerning  Nesta:  —  quite  groundless,  if 
you  '11  believe  me.  Come,  there  's  plenty  of  benevolent 
writing  abroad  on  these  topics  now :  facts  are  more  looked 
at,  and  a  good  woman  may  join  us  in  taking  them  without 
the  horrors  and  loathings  of  angels  rather  too  much  given 
to  claim  distinction  from  the  luckless.  A  girl  who 's  un- 
protected may  go  through  adventures  before  she  fixes,  and 
be  a  creature  of  honest  intentions.  Better  if  protected, 
we  all  agree.     Better  also  if  the  world  did  not  favour  the 


NATALY,   NESTA,   AND  DARTRE Y  FENELLAN      383 

girl's  multitude  of  enemies.  Your  system  of  not  dealing 
with  facts  openly  is  everyway  favourable  to  them.  I  am 
glad  to  say,  Victor  recognizes  what  corruption  that  spread 
of  wealth  is  accountable  for.  And  now  I  must  go  and 
have  a  talk  with  the  —  what  a  change  from  the  blue  but- 
terfly !  Eaglet,  I  ought  to  have  said.  I  dine  with  you, 
for  Victor  may  bring  news.'' 

"Would  anything  down  there  be  news  to  you,  Dartrey  ?  " 

"  He  makes  it  wherever  he  steps." 

"He  would  reproach  me  for  not  detaining  you.  Tell 
Nesta  I  have  to  lie  down  after  talking.  She  has  a  child's 
confidence  in  you." 

A  man  of  middle  age  !  he  said  to  himself.  It  is  the 
particular  ejaculation  which  tames  the  senior  whose  heart 
is  for  a  dash  of  holiday.  He  resolved  that  the  mother 
might  trust  to  the  discretion  of  a  man  of  his  age ;  and  he 
went  down  to  Nesta,  grave  with  the  weight  his  count  of 
years  should  give  him.  Seeing  her,  the  light  of  what  he 
now  knew  of  her  was  an  ennobling  equal  to  celestial.  For 
this  fair  girl  was  one  of  the  active  souls  of  the  world  —  his 
dream  to  discover  in  woman's  form.  She,  the  little  Nesta, 
the  tall  pure-eyed  girl  before  him,  was,  young  though  she 
was,  already  in  the  fight  with  evil :  a  volunteer  of  the  army 
of  the  simply  Christian.  The  worse  for  it  ?  Sowerby  would 
think  so.  She  was  not  of  the  order  of  young  women  who, 
in  sheer  ignorance  or  in  voluntary,  consent  to  the  peace  with 
evil,  and  are  kept  externally  safe  from  the  smirch  of  evil, 
and  are  the  ornaments  of  their  country,  glory  of  a  country 
prizing  ornaments  higher  than  qualities. 

Dartrey  could  have  been  momentarily  incredulous  of 
things  revealed  by  Mrs.  Marsett  —  not  incredulous  of  the 
girl's  heroism :  that  capacity  he  caught  and  gauged  in  her 
shape  of  head,  cut  of  mouth,  and  the  measurements  he  was 
accustomed  to  make  at  a  glance  :  —  but  her  beauty,  or  the 
form  of  beauty  which  was  hers,  argued  against  her  having 
set  foot  of  thought  in  our  fens.  Here  and  far  there  we 
meet  a  young  saint  vowed  to  service  along  by  those  dismal 
swamps  :  and  saintly  she  looks ;  not  of  this  earth.  ]N'esta 
was  of  the  blooming  earth.  Where  do  we  meet  girl  or 
woman  comparable  to  garden-flowers,  who  can  dare  to  touch 
to  lift  the  spotted  of  her  sex  ?     He  was  puzzled  by  Nesta'g 


884  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQUERORS 

unlikeness  in  deeds  and  in  aspect.  He  remembered  her 
eyes,  on  the  day  when  he  and  Colonel  Sudley  beheld  her; 
presently  he  was  at  quiet  grapple  with  her  mind.  His 
doubts  cleared  off.  Then  the  question  came,  How  could  a 
girl  of  heroical  character  be  attached  to  the  man  Sowerby  ? 
That  entirely  passed  belief. 

And  was  it  possible  his  wishes  beguiled  his  heariug? 
Her  tones  were  singularly  vibrating. 

They  talked  for  a  while  before,  drawing  a  deep  breath, 
she  said:  "I  fancy  I  am  in  disgrace  with  my  mother.'' 

"  You  have  a  suspicion  why  ?  "  said  he. 

"I  have.'' 

She  would  have  told  him  why:  the  words  were  at  her 
lips.  Previous  to  her  emotion  on  the  journey  home,  the 
words  would  have  come  out.  They  were  arrested  by  the 
thunder  of  the  knowledge,  that  the  nobleness  in  him  draw- 
ing her  to  be  able  to  speak  of  scarlet  matter,  was  personally 
worshipped. 

He  attributed  the  full  rose  upon  her  cheeks  to  the  for- 
bidding subject. 

To  spare  pain,  he  said  :  ^^  No  misunderstanding  with  the 
dear  mother  will  last  the  day  through.    Can  I  help?" 

"  Oh,  Captain  Dartrey  !  " 

"  Drop  the  captain.     Dartrey  will  do." 

"  How  could  I !  " 

"  You  're  not  wanting  in  courage,  Nesta." 

"Hardly  for  that!" 

"By-and-by,  then." 

"  Though  I  could  not  say  Mr.  Tenellan." 

"  You  see ;  Dartrey,  it  must  be." 

"If  I  could!" 

"  But  the  fellow  is  not  a  captain :  and  he  is  a  friend,  an 
old  friend,  very  old  friend :  he  '11  be  tipped  with  grey  in  a 
year  or  two." 

"  I  might  be  bolder  then." 

"  Imagine  it  now.  There  is  no  disloyalty  in  your  calling 
your  friends  by  their  names." 

Her  nature  rang  to  the  implication.     "  I  am  not  bound." 

Dartrey  hung  fast,  speculating  on  her  visibly :  "  I  heard 
you  were." 

"  No,    I  must  be  free." 


NATALY,   NESTA,   AND  DARTREY  I'ENELLAN      385 

'*  It  is  not  an  engagement  ? '' 

"  Will  you  laugh  ?  —  I  have  never  quite  known.  My 
father  desired  it :  and  my  desire  is  to  please  him.  I  think 
I  am  vain  'enough  to  think  I  read  through  blinds  and 
shutters.  The  engagement  —  what  there  was  —  has  been, 
to  my  reading,  broken  more  than  once.  I  have  not  con- 
sidered it,  to  settle  my  thoughts  on  it,  until  lately :  and 
now  I  may  suspect  it  to  be  broken.  I  have  given  cause  — 
if  it  is  known.  There  is  no  blame  elsewhere.  I  am  not 
unhappy,  Captain  Dartrey." 

"  Captain  by  courtesy.  Very  well.  Tell  me  how  Nesta 
judges  the  engagement  to  be  broken  ?  '* 

She  was  mentally  phrasing  before  she  said:  "Absence." 

"  He  was  here  yesterday." 

All  that  the  visit  embraced  was  in  her  expressive  look,  as 
of  sight  drawing  inward,  like  our  breath  in  a  spell  of  won- 
derment. "  Then  I  understand ;  it  enlightens  me.  My 
own  mother  !  —  my  poor  mother  !  he  should  have  come  to 
me.  I  was  the  guilty  person,  not  she ;  and  she  is  the 
sufferer.  That,  if  in  life  were  direct  retribution! — but 
the  very  meaning  of  having  a  heart,  is  to  suffer  through 
others  or  for  them." 

"  You  have  soon  seen  that,  dear  girl,"  said  Dartrey. 

"  So,  my  own  mother,  and  loving  me  as  she  does,  blames 
me  I  "  Nesta  sighed ;  she  took  a  sharp  breath.  "  You  ?  do 
you  blame  me  too  ?  " 

He  pressed  her  hand,  enamoured  of  her  instantaneous 
divination  and  heavenly  candour. 

But  he  was  admonished,  that  to  speak  high  approval 
would  not  be  honourable  advantage  taken  of  the  rival  con- 
demning ;  and  he  said :  "  Blame  ?  Some  think  it  is  not 
always  the  right  thing  to  do  the  right  thing.  I  've  made 
mistakes,  with  no  bad  design.  A  good  mother's  view  is  not 
often  wrong." 

"  You  pressed  my  hand,"  she  murmured. 

That  certainly  had  said  more. 

"  Glad  to  again,"  he  responded.  It  was  uttered  airily 
and  was  meant  to  be  as  lightly  done. 

Nesta  did  not  draw  back  her  hand.  "  I  feel  strong  when 
you  press  it."  Her  voice  wavered,  and  as  when  we  hear  a 
flask  sing  thin  at  the  filling,  ceased  upon  evidence  of  a  heart 

25 


386  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

surcharged.  How  was  he  to  relax  the  pressure  !  —  he  had 
to  give  her  the  strength  she  craved  :  aud  he  vowed  it  should 
be  but  for  half  a  minute,  half  a  minute  longer. 

Her  tears  fell ;  she  eyed  him  steadily ;  she  had  the  look 
of  sunlight  in  shower. 

_"  Oldish  men  are  the  best  friends  for  you,  I  suppose,"  he 
said  ;  and  her  gaze  turned  elusive  phrases  to  vapour. 

He  was  compelled  to  see  the  fiery  core  of  the  raincloud 
lighting  it  for  a  revealment,  that  allowed  as  little  as  it  re- 
tained of  a  shadow  of  obscurity. 

The  sight  was  keener  than  touch  and  the  run  of  blood 
with  blood  to  quicken  slumbering  seeds  of  passion. 

But  here  is  the  place  of  broken  ground  and  tangle,  which 
calls  to  honourable  men,  not  bent  on  sport,  to  be  wary  to 
guard  the  gunlock.  He  stopped  the  word  at  his  mouth.  It 
was  not  in  him  to  stop  or  moderate  the  force  of  his  eyes. 
She  met  them  with  the  slender  unbendingness  that  was  her 
own ;  a  feminine  of  inspirited  manhood.  There  was  no  soft 
expression,  only  the  direct  shot  of  light,  on  both  sides ; 
conveying  as  much  as  is  borne  from  sun  to  earth,  from 
earth  to  sun.  And  when  such  an  exchange  has  come 
between  the  two,  they  are  past  plighting,  they  are  the 
wedded  one. 

Nesta  felt  it,  without  asking  whether  she  was  loved. 
She  was  his.  She  had  not  a  thought  of  the  word  of  love  or 
the  being  beloved.  Showers  of  painful  blissfulness  went 
through  her,  as  the  tremours  of  a  shocked  frame,  while  she 
sat  quietly,  showing  scarce  a  sign ;  and  after  he  had  let  her 
hand  go,  she  had  the  pressure  on  it.  The  quivering  intense 
of  the  moment  of  his  eyes  and  grasp  was  lord  of  her,  lord 
of  the  day  and  of  all  days  coming.  That  is  how  Love  slays 
Death.     Never  did  girl  so  give  her  soul. 

She  would  have  been  the  last  to  yield  it  unreservedly  to 
a  man  untrusted  for  the  character  she  worshipped.  But 
she  could  have  given  it  to  Dartrey,  despite  his  love  of 
another,  because  it  was  her  soul,  without  any  of  the  crav- 
ings, except  to  bestow. 

He  perceived  that  he  had  been  carried  on  for  the  number 
of  steps  which  are  countless  miles  and  do  not  permit  the 
retreat  across  the  desert  behind ;  and  he  was  in  some  amaze- 
ment at  himself,  remindful  pf  the  different  nature  of  our 


NATALY,   NEST  A,   AND  DAETREY  FENELLAN      887 

restraining  power  when  we  have  a  couple  playing  on  it. 
Yet  here  was  this  girl,  who  called  him  up  to  the  heights  of 
young  life  again :  and  a  brave  girl ;  and  she  bled  for  the 
weak,  had  no  shrinking  from  the  women  underfoot :  for  the 
reason  that  she  was  a  girl  sovereignly  pure,  angelically 
tender.     Was  there  a  point  of  honour  to  hold  him  back  ? 

Nataly  entered  the  room.  She  kissed  Nesta,  and  sat 
silent. 

"  Mother,  will  you  speak  of  me  to  him,  if  I  go  out  ? '' 
Nesta  said. 

"We  have  spoken,"  her  mother  replied,  vexed  by  the 
unmaidenly  allusion  to  that  theme. 

She  would  have  asked,  How  did  you  guess  I  knew  of  it  ? 
—  but  that  the,  Why  should  I  speak  of  you  to  him  ?  —  struck 
the  louder  note  in  her  bosom :  and  then.  What  is  there  that 
this  girl  cannot  guess  !  —  filled  the  mother's  heart  with 
apprehensive  dread :  and  an  inward  cry.  What  things  will 
she  not  set  going,  to  have  them  discussed !  and  the  appal- 
ling theme,  sitting  offensive  though  draped  in  their  midst, 
was  taken  for  a  proof  of  the  girl's  unblushingness.  After 
standing  as  one  woman  against  the  world  so  long,  Nataly 
was  relieved  to  be  on  the  side  of  a  world  now  convictedly 
unjust  to  her  in  the  confounding  of  her  with  the  shameless. 
Her  mind  had  taken  the  brand  of  that  thought :  —  And 
Nesta  had  brought  her  to  it :  —  And  Dudley  Sowerby,  a 
generous  representative  of  the  world,  had  kindly,  having  the 
deputed  power  to  do  so,  sustained  her,  only  partially  blam- 
ing ISTesta,  not  casting  them  off;  as  the  world,  with  which 
Nataly  felt,  under  a  sense  of  the  protection  calling  up  all 
her  gratitude  to  young  Dudley,  would  have  approved  his 
doing. 

She  was  passing  through  a  fit  of  the  cowardice  peculiar 
to  the  tediously  strained,  who  are  being  more  than  com- 
monly tried  —  persecuted,  as  they  say  when  they  are  not 
supplicating  their  tyrannical  Authority  for  aid.  The  world 
will  continue  to  be  indifferent  to  their  view  of  it  and  be- 
haviour toward  it  until  it  ceases  to  encourage  the  growth  of 
hypocrites. 

These  are  moments  when  the  faces  we  are  observing  drop 
their  charm,  showing  us  our  perversion  internal,  if  we  could 
but  reflect,  to  see  it.     Very  many  thousand  times  above 


888  ONE  OF   OUR   CONQUERORS 

Dudley  Sowerby,  Nataly  ranked  Dartrey  Fenellan ;  and  still 
she  looked  at  hira,  where  he  sat  beside  Nesta,  ungenially, 
critical  of  the  very  features,  jealously  in  the  interests  of 
Dudley ;  and  recollecting,  too,  that  she  had  once  prayed  for 
one  exactly  resembling  Dartrey  Fenellan  to  be  her  Nesta's 
husband.  But,  as  she  would  have  said,  that  was  before  the 
indiscretion  of  her  girl  had  shown  her  to  require  for  her 
Imsband  a  man  whose  character  and  station  guaranteed 
protection  instead  of  inciting  to  rebellion.  And  Dartrey, 
the  loved  and  prized,  was  often  in  the  rebel  ranks ;  he  was 
dissatisfied  with  matters  as  they  are ;  was  restless  for  action, 
angry  with  a  country  denying  it  to  him ;  he  made  enemies, 
he  would  surely  bring  down  inquiries  about  Nesta's  head, 
and  cause  the  forgotten  or  quiescent  to  be  stirred ;  he  would 
scarcely  be  the  needed  hand  for  such  a  quiver  of  the  light- 
nings as  Nesta  was. 

Dartrey  read  Nataly's  brows.  This  unwonted  uncomeli- 
ness  of  hers  was  an  indication  to  one  or  other  of  our  dusky 
pits,  not  a  revealing. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.  MARSETT 

He  read  her  more  closely  when  Arlington  brought  in  the 
brown  paper  envelope  of  the  wires  —  to  which  the  mate  of 
Victor  ought  to  have  become  accustomed.  She  took  it ;  her 
eyelids  closed,  and  her  features  were  driven  to  whiteness. 
"  Only  these  telegrams,"  she  said,  in  apology. 

"  Lakelands  on  fire  ?  ''  Dartrey  murmured  to  Nesta ;  and 
she  answered :  "  I  should  not  be  sorry.'' 

Nataly  coldly  asked  her  why  she  would  not  be  sorry. 

Dartrey  interposed:  "I'm  sure  she  thinks  Lakelands 
worries  her  mother." 

"That  ranks  low  among  the  worries,"  Nataly  sighed, 
opening  the  envelope. 

Nesta  touched  her  arm :  "Mother!  even  before  Captain 
Dartrey,  if  you  will  let  me ! "  —  she   turned  to   him :  — 


A  CHAPTER  m  THE   SHADOW  OF  MBS.   MARSETT      389 

"  before  "...  at  the  end  of  her  breath  she  said :  "  Dartrey 
Fenellan.     You  shall  see  my  whole  heart,  mother." 

Her  mother  looked  from  her  at  him. 

"Victor  returns  by  the  last  train.  He  telegraphs  that 
he  dines  with  —  "     She  handed  the  paper  to  Dartrey. 

"  Marsett,"  he  read  aloud ;  and  she  flushed ;  she  was  angry 
with  him  for  not  knowing  that  the  name  was  a  term  of 
opprobrium  flung  at  her. 

"  It 's  to  tell  you  he  has  done  what  he  thought  good,"  said 
Dartrey.  "  In  other  words,  as  I  interpret,  he  has  completed 
his  daughter's  work.  So  we  won't  talk  about  it  till  he  comes. 
You  have  no  company  this  evening  ?  " 

"  Oh !  there  is  a  pause  to-night !  It 's  nearly  as  unceas- 
ing as  your  brother  Simeon's  old  French  lady  in  the  ronde 
with  her  young  bridegroom,  till  they  danced  her  to  pieces. 
I  do  get  now  and  then  an  hour's  repose,"  Nataly  added, 
with  a  vision  springing  up  of  the  person  to  whom  the  story 
had  applied. 

"  My  dear,  you  are  a  good  girl  to  call  me  Dartrey,"  the 
owner  of  the  name  said  to  Nesta. 

Nataly  saw  them  both  alert,  in  the  terrible  manner  pecu- 
liar to  both,  for  the  directest  of  the  bare  statements.  She 
could  have  protested,  that  her  love  of  truth  was  on  an 
equality  with  theirs ;  and  certainly,  that  her  regard  for 
decency  was  livelier.  Pass  the  deficiency  in  a  man.  But 
a  girl  who  could  speak,  by  allusion,  of  Mrs.  Marsett  —  of 
the  existence  of  a  Mrs.  Marsett  —  in  the  presence  of  a 
man :  and  he  excusing,  encouraging  :  and  this  girl  her  own 
girl ;  —  it  seemed  to  her  that  the  world  reeled  ;  she  could 
hardly  acknowledge  the  girl;  save  under  the  penitential 
admission  of  her  sin's  having  found  her  out. 

She  sent  Nesta  to  her  room  when  they  went  upstairs  to 
dress,  unable  to  endure  her  presence  after  seeing  her  show 
a  placid  satisfaction  at  Dartrey's  nod  to  the  request  for  him 
to  sleep  in  the  house  that  night.  It  was  not  at  all  a  gleam 
of  pleasure,  hardly  an  expression;  it  was  a  manner  of  saying. 
One  drop  more  in  my  cup  of  good  fortune  ! — an  absurd  and 
an  offensive  exhibition  of  silly  optimism  of  the  young,  blind 
that  they  are ! 

For  were  it  known,  and  surely  the  happening  of  it  would 
be  known,  that  Dudley  Sowerby  had  shaken  off  the  Nesta  of 


890  OKE  OF  OUR   CONQUBEOKS 

no  name,  wlio  was  the  abominable  Mrs.  Marsett's  friend,  a 
whirlwind  with  a  trumpet  would  sweep  them  into  the  wilder- 
ness on  a  blast  frightfuller  than  any  ever  heard. 

Nataly  had  a  fit  of  weeping  for  want  of  the  girPs  embrace, 
against  whom  her  door  was  jealously  locked.  She  hoped 
those  two  would  talk  much,  madly  if  they  liked,  during 
dinner,  that  she  might  not  be  sensible,  through  any  short 
silence,  of  the  ardour  animating  them:  especially  glowing 
in  Nesta,  ready  behind  her  quiet  mask  to  come  brazenly 
forth.  But  both  of  them  were  mercilessly  ardent ;  and  a 
sickness  of  the  fear,  that  they  might  fall  on  her  to  capture 
her  and  hurry  her  along  with  them  perforce  of  the  allayed, 
once  fatal,  inflammable  element  in  herself,  shook  the  warmth 
from  her  limbs :  causing  her  to  say  to  herself  aloud  in  a 
ragged  hoarseness,  very  strangely :  Every  thought  of  mine 
now  has  a  physical  effect  on  me! 

They  had  not  been  two  minutes  together  when  she  de- 
scended to  them.  Yet  she  saw  the  girl's  heart  brimming, 
either  with  some  word  spoken  to  her  or  for  joy  of  an  un- 
maidenly  confession.  During  dinner  they  talked,  without 
distressful  pauses.  Whatever  said,  whatever  done,  was 
manifestly  another  drop  in  Nesta's  foolish  happy  cup. 
Could  it  be  all  because  Dartrey  Fenellan  countenanced  her 
acquaintance  with  that  woman  ?  The  mother  had  lost  hold 
of  her.     The  tortured  mother  had  lost  hold  of  herself. 

Dartrey,  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  begged  to  hear  the 
contralto ;  and  Kataly,  refusing,  was  astounded  by  the 
admission  in  her  blank  mind  of  the  truth  of  man's  list  of 
charges  against  her  sex,  starting  from  their  capriciousness : 
for  she  could  have  sung  in  a  crowded  room,  and  she  had 
now  a  desire  for  company,  for  stolid  company  or  giddy,  an 
ocean  of  it.  This  led  to  her  thinking  that  the  world  of 
serious  money-getters,  and  feasts,  and  the  dance,  the 
luxurious  displays,  and  the  reverential  Sunday  service,  will 
always  ultimately  prove  itself  right  in  opposition  to  critics 
and  rebels,  and  to  anyone  vainly  trying  to  stand  alone :  and 
the  thought  annihilated  her ;  for  she  was  past  the  age  of  the 
beginning  again,  and  no  footing  was  left  for  an  outsider  not 
self-justified  in  being  where  she  stood.  She  heard  Dartrey 's 
praise  of  Nesta's  voice  for  tearing  her  mother's  bosom  with 
notes  of  intolerable  sweetness  j  and  it  was  haphazard  irony, 


A   CHAPTER  IN   THE   SHADOW   OF   MRS.   IVIARSETT      391 

no  doubt ;  we  do  not  the  less  bleed  for  the  accident  of  a 
shot. 

At  last,  after  midnight  Victor  arrived. 

Nesta  most  impudently  expected  to  be  allowed  to  remain. 
"  Pray,  go,  dear,"  her  mother  said.  Victor  kissed  his  Fredi. 
"  Some  time  to-morrow,"  said  he ;  and  she  forbore  to  beseech 
him. 

He  stared,  though  mildly,  at  sight  of  her  taking  Dartrey's 
hand  for  the  good-night  and  deliberately  putting  her  lips 
to  it. 

Was  she  a  girl  whose  notion  of  rectifying  one  wrong 
thing  done,  was  to  do  another  ?  Nataly  could  merely 
observe.  A  voice  pertaining  to  no  one  present,  said  in 
her  ear:  Mothers  have  publicly  slapped  their  daughters' 
faces  for  less  than  that !  —  It  was  the  voice  of  her  inca- 
pacity to  cope  with  the  girl.  She  watched  Nesta's  passage 
from  the  room,  somewhat  affected  by  the  simple  bearing 
for  which  she  was  reproaching  her. 

*'And  our  poor  darling  has  not  seen  a  mountain  this 
year ! "  Victor  exclaimed,  to  have  mentionable  grounds  for 
pitying  his  girl.  "I  promised  Fredi  she  should  never  count 
a  year  without  Highlands  or  Alps.  You  remember,  mama  ? 
—  down  in  the  West  Highlands.  Fancy  the  dear  bit  of 
bundle,  Dartrey !  —  we  had  laid  her  in  her  bed ;  she  was 
about  seven  or  eight ;  and  there  she  lay  wide  awake.  — 
*  What's  Fredi  thinking  of  ? '  —  *  I  'm  thinking  of  the  tops 
of  the  mountains  at  night,  dada.'  —  She  would  climb  them 
now  J  she  has  the  legs." 

Nataly  said :  "  You  have  some  report  to  make.  You 
dined  with  those  people  ?  " 

*'  The  Marsetts  :  yes  :  —  well-suited  couple  enough.  It 's 
to  happen  before  Winter  ends  —  at  once ;  before  Christmas ; 
positively  before  next  Spring.  Fredi's  doing !  He  has  to 
manage,  arrange.  —  She 's  a  good-looking  woman,  good 
height,  well-rounded ;  well-behaved,  too :  she  won't  make 
a  bad  Lady  Marsett.  Every  time  that  woman  spoke  of  our 
girl,  the  tears  jumped  to  her  eyelids." 

"  Come  to  me  before  you  go  to  bed,"  Nataly  said,  rising, 
her  voice  foundering.     "  Good-night,  Dartrey." 

She  turned  to  the  door ;  she  could  not  trust  herself  to 
shake  hands  with  composure.     Not  only  was  it  a  nauseous 


392  ONE  OF  OUR   COKQXTEROES 

mixture  she  was  forced  to  gulp  from  Victor,  it  burned  like 
a  poison. 

"  Eeally  Fredi's  doing  —  chiefly,"  said  Victor,  as  soon  as 
Dartrey  and  he  were  alone,  comfortably  settled  in  the  smok- 
ing-room.    "  I  played  the  man  of  pomp  with  Marsett  —  good 
heavy  kind  of  creature :  attached  to  the  woman.    She  's  the 
better  horse,  as  far  as  brains  go.     Good  enough  Lady  Mar- 
sett.     I  harped  on  Major  Worrell :  my  daughter  insulted. 
He  knew  of  it  —  spoke  of  you  properly.     The  man  offered 
all  apologies ;  has  told  the  Major  he  is   no  gentleman,  not 
a  fit  associate  for  gentlemen :  —  quite   so  :  —  and  has  cut 
him  dead.     Will  marry  her,  as  I  said,  make  her  as  worthy 
as  he  can  of  the  honour  of   my  daughter's  acquaintance. 
Rather  comical  grimace,  when  he   vowed  he  'd  fasten  the 
tie.     He  does  n't  like  marriage.     But  he  can't  give  her  up. 
And  she  's  for  patronizing  the  institution.    But  she  is  ready 
to  say  good-bye  to  him  :   ^  rather  than  see  the  truest  lady  in 
the  world  insulted : '  —  her  words.     And  so  he  swallows  his 
dose  for  health,  and  looks  a  trifle  sourish.    Antecedents,  I 
suppose  :  has  to  stomach   them.     But  if  a  man  's  fond  of  a 
woman  —  if  he  knows,  he  saves  her  from  slipping  lower  — 
and  it 's  an  awful  world,  for  us  to  let  a  woman  be  under  its 
wheels :  —  I  say,  a  woman  who  has  a  man  to  lean  on,  unless 
she's  as  downright  corrupt  as  two  or  three  of  the  men 
we  Ve  known :  —  upon  my  word,  Dartrey,  I  come  round  to 
some  of  your  ideas  on  these   mattters.     It's  this  girl  of 
mine,  this  wee  bit  of  girl  in  her  little  nightshirt  with  the 
frill,  astonishes  me  most :  —  *  thinking  of  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  at  night ! '     She  has  positively  done  the  whole 
of  this  work  —  main  part.     I  smiled  when  I  left  the  house, 
to  have  to  own  our  little  Fredi  starting  us  all  on  the  road. 
It  seems,  Marsett  had  sworn  he  would ;    amorous  vow,  you 
know ;  he  never  came  nearer  to  doing  it.     I  hope  it 's  his 
better  mind  now ;  I  do  hope  the  man  won't  have  cause  to 
regret  it.     He  speaks  of  Nesta  —  sort   of   rustic  tone   of 
awe.     Mrs.  Marsett  has  impressed  him.     He  expects  the 
title  soon,  will  leave  the  army  —  the  poor  plucked  British 
army,  as   you   call   it !  —  and  lead  the  life   of  a  country 
squire :  hunting  !    Well,  it 's  not  only  the  army,  it 's  over 
Great  Britain,  with  this  infernal  wealth  of  ours !  —  and  all 
for  pleasure  —  eh  ?  —  or  Paradise  lost  for  a  sugar  plum  \ 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.   MARSETT      893 

Eh,  Dartrey  ?  Upon  my  word,  it  appears  to  me,  Esau 's  the 
Englishman,  Jacob  the  German,  of  these  times.  I  wonder 
old  Colney  has  n't  said  it.  If  we  're  not  plucked,  as  your 
regiments  are  of  the  officers  who  have  learnt  their  work, 
we  're  emasculated :  —  the  nation 's  half  made-up  of  the 
idle  and  the  servants  of  the  idle." 

"  Ay,  and  your  country  squires  and  your  manufacturers 
contrive  to  give  the  army  a  body  of  consumptive  louts  fit 
for  nothing  else  than  to  take  the  shilling  —  and  not  worth 
it,"  said  Dartrey. 

"Sounds  like  old  Colney,"  Victor  remarked  to  himself. 
"But,  believe  me  I'm  ashamed  of  the  number  of  servants 
who  wait  on  me.  It  wouldn't  so  much  matter,  as  Skepsey 
says,  if  they  were  trained  to  arms  and  self-respect.  That 
little  fellow  Skepsey 's  closer  to  the  right  notion,  and  the 
right  practice,  too,  than  any  of  us.  With  his  Matilda 
Pridden  !  He  has  jumped  out  of  himself  to  the  proper 
idea  of  women,  too.  And  there  's  a  man  who  has  been 
up  three  times  before  the  magistrates,  and  is  considered  a 
disorderly  subject  —  one  among  the  best  of  English  citi- 
zens, I  declare !  I  never  think  of  Skepsey  without  the 
most  extraordinary,  witless  kind  of  envy  —  as  if  he  were 
putting  in  action  an  idea  I  once  had  and  never  quite  got 
hold  of  again.  The  match  for  him  is  Fredi.  She  threatens 
to  be  just  as  devoted,  just  as  simple,  as  he.  I  positively 
doubt  whether  any  of  us  could  stop  her,  if  she  had  set 
herself  to  do  a  thing  she  thought  right." 

"  I  should  not  like  to  think  our  trying  it  possible,"  said 
Dartrey. 

"  All  very  well,  but  it 's  a  rock  ahead.  We  shall  have  to 
alter  our  course,  my  friend.  You  know,  I  dined  with  that 
couple,  after  the  private  twenty  minutes  with  Marsett :  — 
he  formally  propounded  the  invitation,  as  we  were  close  on 
his  hour,  rather  late :  and  I  wanted  to  make  the  woman 
happy,  besides  putting  a  seal  of  cordiality  on  his  good  in- 
tentions —  politic  !  And  subsequently  I  heard  from  her, 
that  —  you  '11  think  nothing  of  it !  —  Fredi  promised  to 
stand  by  her  at  the  altar." 

Dartrey  said,  shrugging :  "  She  need  n't  do  that." 

"  So  we  may  say.  You  're  dealing  with  Kesta  Victoria. 
Spare  me  a  contest  with  that  girl,  I  undertake  to  manage 
any  man  or  woman  living." 


894  ONE  OF  OUR   CONQUERORS    ' 

'^  When  the  thing  to  be  done  is  thought  right  by  her." 

*-But  can  we  always  trust  her  judgement,  my  dear 
Dartrey  ? '' 

^'  In  this  case,  she  would  argue  that  her  resolution  to  keep 
her  promise  would  bind  or  help  to  bind  Marsett  to  fulfil  his 
engagement." 

"  Odd,  her  mother  has  turned  dead  round  in  favour  of  that 
fellow  Dudley  Sowerby!  I  don't  complain;  it  suits;  but 
one  thinks  —  eh  ?  —  women  !  " 

"  Well,  yes,  one  thinks  or  should  think,  that  if  you  insist 
on  having  women  rooted  to  the  bed  of  the  river,  they  '11  veer 
with  the  tides,  like  water-weeds,  and  no  wonder/' 

"  Your  heterodoxy  on  that  subject  is  a  mania,  Dartrey. 
We  can't  have  women  independent." 

"  Then  don't  be  exclaiming  about  their  vagaries." 

Victor  mused :  "  It 's  wonderful :  that  little  girl  of  mine  ! 

—  good  height  now :  but  what  a  head  she  has !  Oh,  she  '11 
listen  to  reason :  only  mark  what  I  say  :  —  with  that  quiet 
air  of  hers,  the  husband,  if  a  young  fellow,  will  imagine 
she 's  the  most  docile  of  wives  in  the  world.  And  as  to  wife, 
I  'm  not  of  the  contrary  opinion.  But  qua  individual  female, 
supposing  her  to  have  laid  fast  hold  of  an  idea  of  duty,  it 's 
he  who  '11  have  to  turn  the  corner  second,  if  they  're  to  trot 
in  the  yoke  together.  Or  may  it  be  an  idea  of  service  to  a 
friend  —  or  to  her  sex  !     That  Mrs.  Marsett  says  she  feels  for 

—  ^bleeds'  for  her  sex.  The  poor  woman  didn't  show  to 
advantage  with  me,  because  she  was  in  a  fever  to  please  :  — 
talks  in  jerks,  hot  phrases.  She  holds  herself  well.  At  the 
end  of  the  dinner  she  behaved  better.  Odd,  you  can  teach 
women  with  hints  and  a  lead.  But  Marsett 's  Marsett  to  the 
end.  Bather  touching !  —  the  poor  fellow  said  :  Deuce  of  a 
bad  look-out  for  me  if  Judith  does  n't  have  a  child !  First- 
rate  sportsman,  I  hear.  He  should  have  thought  of  his 
family  earlier.  You  know,  Dartrey,  the  case  is  to  be  argued 
for  the  family  as  well.  You  won't  listen.  And  for  Society 
too!     Off  you  go." 

A  battery  was  opened  on  that  wall  of  composite. 

"  Ah,  well,"  said  Victor.  "  But  I  may  have  to  beg  your 
help,  as  to  the  so-called  promise  to  stand  at  the  altar.  I 
don't  mention  it  upstairs." 

He  went  to  Nataly's  room. 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE   SHADOW  OF  IMES.   IVIAESETT      395 

She  was  considerately  treated,  and  was  aware  of  being 
dandled,  that  she  might  have  sleep. 

She  consented  to  it,  in  a  loathing  of  the  topic.  —  Those 
women  invade  us  —  we  cannot  keep  them  out!  was  her 
inward  cry:  with,  a  reverberation  of  the  unfailing  accom- 
paniment:—  The  world  holds  you  for  one  of  them  ! 

Victor  tasked  her  too  much  when  his  perpetual  readiness 
to  doat  upon  his  girl  for  whatever  she  did,  set  him  exalting 
]^esta's  conduct.  She  thought :  Was  Nesta  so  sympathetic 
with,  her  mother  of  late  by  reason  of  a  moral  insensibility 
to  the  offence  ? 

This  was  her  torture  through  the  night  of  a  labouring 
heart,  that  travelled  to  one  dull  shock,  again  and  again 
repeated :  —  the  apprehended  sound,  in  fact,  of  Dudley 
Sowerby's  knock  at  the  street  door.  Or  sometimes  a  foot- 
man handed  her  his  letter,  courteously  phrased  to  withdraw 
from  the  alliance.  Or  else  he  came  to  a  scene  with  Nesta 
and  her  mother  was  dragged  into  it,  and  the  intolerable 
subject  steamed  about  her.  The  girl  was  visioned  as  deadly. 
She  might  be  indifferent  to  the  protection  of  Dudley's  name. 
Kobust,  sanguine,  Victor's  child,  she  might  —  her  mother 
listened  to  a  devil's  whisper :  —  but  no ;  Nesta's  aim  was  at 
the  heights ;  she  was  pure  in  mind  as  in  body.  No,  but  the 
world  would  bring  the  accusation;  and  the  world  would 
trace  the  cause :  Heredity,  it  would  say.  Would  it  say 
falsely  ?  Nataly  harped  on  the  interrogation  until  she  felt 
her  existence  dissolving  to  a  dark  stain  of  the  earth,  and  she 
found  herself  wondering  at  the  breath  she  drew,  doubting 
that  another  would  follow,  speculating  on  the  cruel  force 
which  keeps  us  to  the  act  of  breathing.  —  Though  I  could 
draw  wild  blissful  breath  if  I  were  galloping  across  the 
moors !  her  worn  heart  said  to  her  youth :  and  out  of  ken  of 
the  world,  I  could  regain  a  portion  of  my  self-esteem. — 
Nature  thereat  renewed  her  old  sustainment  with  gentle 
murmurs,  that  were  supported  by  Dr.  Themison's  account  of 
the  virtuous  married  lady  who  chafed  at  the  yoke  on  behalf 
of  her  sex,  and  deemed  the  independent  union  the  ideal. 
Nataly's  brain  had  a  short  gallop  over  moorland.  It  brought 
her  face  to  face  with  Victor's  girl,  and  she  dropped  once 
more  to  her  remorse  in  herself  and  her  reproaches  of  Nesta. 
The  girl  had  inherited  from  her  father  something  of  the 


896  OKE   OF  OUR  COKQUEROBS 

cataract's  force  which  -won  its  way  by  catching  or  by 
mastering,  uprooting,  ruining ! 

In  the  morning  she  was  heavily  asleep.  Victor  left  word 
with  Nesta,  that  the  dear  mother  was  not  to  be  disturbed. 
Consequently,  when  Dudley  called  to  see  Mrs.  Victor  Kad- 
nor,  he  was  informed  that  Miss  Eadnor  would  receive  him. 

Their  interview  lasted  an  hour. 

Dudley  came  to  Victor  in  the  City  about  luncheon  time. 
His  perplexity  of  countenance  was  eloquent.  He  had,  be- 
fore seeing  the  young  lady,  digested  an  immense  deal: 
more,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  than  any  English  gentleman 
should  be  asked  to  consume.  She  now  referred  him  to  her 
father,  who  had  spent  a  day  in  Brighton,  and  would,  she 
said,  explain  whatever  there  was  to  be  explained.  But 
she  added  that  if  she  was  expected  to  abandon  a  friend, 
she  could  not.  Dudley  had  argued  with  her  upon  the 
nature  of  friendship,  the  measurement  of  its  various 
dues  ;  he  had  lectured  on  the  choice  of  friends,  the  impossi- 
bility for  young  ladies,  necessarily  inexperienced,  to  dis- 
tinguish the  right  class  of  friends,  the  dangers  they  ran  in 
selecting  friends  unwarranted  by  the  stamp  of  honourable 
families. 

"  And  what  did  Fredi  say  to  that  ?  "  Victor  inquired. 

"Miss  Badnor  said  —  I  may  be  dense,  I  cannot  compre- 
hend—  that  the  precepts  were  suitable  for  seminaries  of 
Pharisees.  When  it  is  a  question  of  a  young  lady  associat- 
ing with  a  notorious  woman  !  " 

"  Not  notorious.  You  spoil  your  case  if  you  *  speak  ex- 
tremely,' as  a  friend  says.  I  saw  her  yesterday.  She 
worships  ^  Miss  Badnor.'  " 

"Nesta  will  know  when  she  is  older;  she  will  thank 
me,"  Dudley  said  hurriedly.  *^As  it  is  at  present,  I  may 
reckon,  I  hope,  that  the  association  ceases.  Her  name  —  I 
have  to  consider  my  family." 

"  Good  anchorage  !  You  must  fight  it  out  with  the  girl. 
And  depend  upon  this  —  you  're  not  the  poorer  for  being  the 
husband  of  a  girl  of  character  ;  unless  you  try  to  bridle  her. 
She  belongs  to  her  time.  I  don't  mind  owning  to  you,  she 
has  given  me  a  lead.  —  Tredi  '11  be  merry  to-night.  Here 's 
a  letter  I  have  from  the  Sanfredini,  dated  Milan,  fresh 
this  morning ;  invitation  to  bring  the  god-child  to  her  villa 


A  CHAPTER   IN   THE   SHADOW   OF  MRS.   MARSETT      397 

on  Como  in  May;  desirous  to  embrace  her.  She  wrote  to 
the  office.  Not  a  word  of  her  duque.  She  has  pitched 
him  to  the  winds.  You  may  like  to  carry  it  off  to  Fredi 
and  please  her." 

"  1  have  business/'  Dudley  replied. 

"  Away  to  it,  then  !  "  said  Victor.  "  You  stand  by  me  ? 
—  we  expect  our  South  London  borough  to  be  open  in 
January ;  early  next  year,  at  least ;  may  be  February.  You 
have  family  interest  there." 

*^ Personally,  I  will  do  my  best,"  Dudley  said;  and  he 
escaped,  feeling,  with  the  universal  censor's  angry  spite,  that 
the  revolutions  of  the  world  had  made  one  of  the  wealthiest 
of  City  men  the  head  of  a  set  of  Bohemians.  And  there  are 
eulogists  of  the  modern  time !  And  the  man's  daughter 
was  declared  to  belong  to  it !  A  visit  in  May  to  the  Italian 
cantatrice  separated  from  her  husband,  would  render  the 
maiden  an  accomplished  flinger  of  caps  over  the  wind- 
mills. 

At  home  Victor  discovered  that  there  was  not  much  more 
than  a  truce  between  Nesta  and  Nataly.  He  had  a  medical 
hint  from  Dr.  Themison,  and  he  counselled  his  girl  to 
humour  her  mother  as  far  as  could  be :  particularly  in  re- 
lation to  Dudley,  whom  Nataly  now,  woman-like,  after 
opposing,  strongly  favoured.  How  are  we  ever  to  get  a  clue 
to  the  labyrinthine  convolutions  and  changeful  motives  of 
the  sex !  Dartrey's  theories  were  absurd.  Did  Nataly 
think  them  dangerous  for  a  young  woman  ?  The  guess 
hinted  at  a  clue  of  some  sort  to  the  secret  of  her  veering. 

"  Mr.  Sowerby  left  me  with  an  adieu,"  said  Nesta. 

"  Mr.  Sowerby  !  My  dear,  he  is  bound,  bound  in  honour, 
bound  at  heart.     You  did  not  dismiss  him  ?  " 

"I  repeated  the  word  he  used.  I  thought  of  mother. 
The  blood  leaves  her  cheeks  at  a  disappointment  now.  She 
has  taken  to  like  him." 

"  Why,  you  like  him ! " 

"  I  could  not  vow." 

"Tush." 

"Ah,  don't  press  me,  dada.  But  you  will  see,  he  has 
disengaged  himself." 

He  had  done  it,  though  not  in  formal  speech.  Slow  di- 
gestion of  his  native  antagonism  to  these  Bohemians,  to  say 


898  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

nothing  of  his  judicial  condemnation  of  them,  brought  him 
painfully  round  to  the  writing  of  a  letter  to  Nataly ;  cun- 
ningly addressed  to  the  person  on  whom  his  instinct  told 
him  he  had  the  strongest  hold. 

She  schooled  herself  to  discuss  the  detested  matter  form- 
ing Dudley's  grievance  and  her  own  with  ISTesta ;  and  it  was 
a  woeful  half-hour  for  them.  But  Nataly  was  not  the 
weeper. 

Another  interview  ensued  between  Nesta  and  her  suitor. 
Dudley  bore  no  resemblance  to  Mr.  Barmby,  who  refused  to 
take  the  word  no  from  her,  and  had  taken  it,  and  had  gone 
to  do  holy  work,  for  which  she  revered  him.  Dudley  took 
the  word,  leaving  her  to  imagine  freedom,  until  once  more 
her  mother  or  her  father,  inspired  by  him,  came  interceding, 
her  mother  actually  supplicating.  So  that  the  reality  of 
Dudley's  love  rose  to  conception  like  a  London  dawn  over 
Nesta;  and  how,  honourably,  decently,  positively,  to  sever 
herself  from  it,  grew  to  be  an  ill-visaged  problem.  She 
glanced  in  soul  at  Dartrey  Fenellan  for  help ;  she  had  her 
wild  thoughts.  Having  once  called  him  Dartrey,  the  vir- 
ginal barrier  to  thoughts  was  broken ;  and  but  for  love  of 
her  father,  for  love  and  pity  of  her  mother,  she  would  have 
ventured  the  step  to  make  the  man  who  had  her  whole  being 
in  charge  accept  or  reject  her.  Nothing  else  appeared  in 
prospect.  Her  father  and  mother  were  urgently  one  to 
favour  Dudley  ;  and  the  sensitive  gentleman  presented  him- 
self to  receive  his  wound  and  to  depart  with  it.  But  always 
he  returned.  At  last,  as  if  under  tuition,  he  refrained  from 
provoking  a  wound;  he  stood  there  to  win  her  upon  any 
terms  ;  and  he  was  a  handsome  figure,  acknowledged  by  the 
damsel  to  be  increasing  in  good  looks  as  more  and  more  his 
pretensions  became  distasteful  to  her.  The  slight  cast  of 
sourness  on  his  lower  features  had  almost  vanished,  his 
nature  seemed  to  have  enlarged.  He  complimented  her  for 
her  "  generous  benevolence,"  vaguely,  yet  with  evident  sin- 
cereness;  he  admitted,  that  the  modern  world  is  "attempt- 
ing difficulties  with  at  least  commendable  intentions  ; "  and 
that  the  position  of  women  demands  improvement,  con- 
sideration for  them  also.  He  said  feelingly:  "They  have 
to  bear  extraordinary  burdens  !  "     There  he  stopped. 

The  sharp  intelligence  fronting  him  understood  that  this 


A  CHAPTER  IN   THE   SHADOW  OF  MKS.   JNIARSETT      099 

compassionate  ejaculation  was  the  point  where  she,  too, 
must  cry  halt.  He  had,  however  —  still  under  tuition,  per- 
haps—  withdrawn  his  voice  from  the  pursuit  of  her;  and 
so  she  in  gratitude  silenced  her  critical  mind  beneath  a 
smooth  conceit  of  her  having  led  him  two  steps  to  a  broader 
tolerance.  Susceptible  as  she  was,  she  did  not  influence 
him  without  being  affected  herself  in  other  things  than  her 
vanity :  his  prudishness  affected  her.  Only  when  her  heart 
flamed  did  she  disdain  that  real  haven  of  refuge,  with  its 
visionary  mount  of  superiority,  offered  by  Society  to  its 
elect,  in  the  habit  of  ignoring  the  sins  it  fosters  under  cloak ; 
—  not  less  than  did  the  naked  barbaric  time,  and  far  more 
to  the  vitiation  of  the  soul.  He  fancied  he  was  moulding 
her ;  therefore  winning  her.  It  followed  that  he  had  the 
lover's  desire  for  assurance  of  exclusive  possession  ;  and  re- 
flecting that  he  had  greatly  pardoned,  he  grew  exacting. 
He  mentioned  his  objections  to  some  of  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenel- 
lan's  ideas. 

Nesta  replied :  "  I  have  this  morning  had  two  letters  to 
make  me  happy." 

A  provoking  evasion.  He  would  rather  have  seen  antag- 
onism bridle  and  stiffen  her  figure.  "  Is  one  of  them  from 
that  gentleman  ?  " 

"One  is  from  my  dear  friend  Louise  de  Seilles.  She 
comes  to  me  early  next  month." 

"The  other?" 

"  The  other  is  also  from  a  friend." 

"A  dear  friend?" 

"  Not  so  dear.     Her  letter  gives  me  happiness." 

"  She  writes  —  not  from  France  :  from  .  .  .  ?  you  tempt 
me  to  guess." 

"  She  writes  to  tell  me  that  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan  has 
helped  her  in  a  way  to  make  her  eternally  thankful." 

"  The  place  she  writes  from  is  .  .  .  ?  " 

The  drag  of  his  lips  betrayed  his  enlightenment.  He  in- 
sisted on  doubting.     He  demanded  assurance. 

"  It  matters  in  no  degree,"  she  said. 

Dudley  "  thought  himself  excusable  for  inquiring." 

She  bowed  gently. 

The  stings  and  scorpions  and  degrading  itches  of  thig 
nest  of  wealthy  Bohemians  enraged  him, 


400  ONE   OF  OUH   CONQUEROKS 

"  Are  you  —  I  beg  to  ask  —  are  you  still :  —  I  can  hardly 
think  it  —  Nesta  !  —  I  surely  have  a  claim  to  advise :  —  it 
cannot  be  with  your  mother's  consent ;  —  in  communication, 
in  correspondence  with  .  .  .  ?  " 

Again  she  bowed  her  head,  saying  :  '^It  is  true." 

"  With  that  person  ?  " 

He  could  not  but  look  the  withering  disgust  of  the 
modern  world  in  a  conservative  gentleman  who  has  been 
lured  to  go  with  it  a  little  way,  only  to  be  bitten.  "  I  de- 
cline to  believe  it,"  he  said  with  forcible  sound. 

"  She  is  married,"  was  the  rather  shameless,  exasperating 
answer. 

"  Married  or  not !  "  he  cried,  and  murmured :  "  I  have 
borne  —  These  may  be  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan's  ideas ; 
they  are  not  mine.  I  have  —  Something  at  least  is  due  to 
me.  Ask  any  lady  :  —  there  are  clergymen,  I  know, 
clergymen  who  are  for  uplifting — quite  right,  but  not 
associating :  —  to  call  one  of  them  a  friend !  Ask  any  lady, 
any  !     Your  mother  ..." 

*'  I  beg  you  will  not  distress  my  mother,"  said  Kesta. 
■  "  I  beg  to  know  whether  this  correspondence  is  to  con- 
tinue ?  "  said  Dudley. 

^' All  my  life,  if  I  do  not  feel  dishonoured  by  it." 

"  You  are."  He  added  hastily :  "  Counsels  of  prudence  : 
—  there  is  not  a  lady  living  who  would  tell  you  otherwise. 
At  all  events,  in  public  opinion,  if  it  were  known  —  and  it 
would  certainly  be  known,  —  a  lady,  wife  or  spinster,  would 
suffer  —  would  not  escape  the  —  at  least  shadow  of  defile- 
ment from  relationship,  any  degree  of  intimacy  with  .  .  . 
hard  words  are  wholesome  in  such  a  case  :  —  'touch  pitch,' 
yes !     My  sense  is  coherent." 

"  Quite,"  said  Nesta. 

"  And  you  do  not  agree  with  me  ?  " 

"I  do  not." 

"  Do  you  pretend  to  be  as  able  to  judge  as  I  ?  " 

"In  this  instance,  better." 

*'Then  I  retire.  I  cannot  retain  my  place  here.  You 
may  depend  upon  it,  the  world  is  not  wrong  when  it  forbids 
young  ladies  to  have  cognizance  with  women  leading  dis- 
ordei-ly  lives." 

"  Only  the  women,  Mr.  Sowerby  ?  " 


A  CHAPTEB  IN  TELE  SHADOW   OF  MRS.  MARSETT     401 

"  Men,  too,  of  course." 

"You  do  not  exclude  the  men  from  Society." 

"  Oil !  one  reads  that  kind  of  argument  in  books." 

"  Oh !  the  worthy  books,  then.  I  would  read  them,  if  I 
could  find  them." 

"They  are  banned  by  self-respecting  readers." 

"  It  grieves  me  to  think  differently." 

Dudley  looked  on  this  fair  girl,  as  yet  innocent  girl ;  and 
contrasting  her  with  the  foulness  of  the  subject  she  dared 
discuss,  it  seemed  to  him  that  a  world  which  did  not 
puff  at  her  and  silence,  if  not  extinguish,  was  in  a  state  of 
liquefaction. 

Eemembering  his  renewed  repentances  in  absence,  he 
said  :  "I  do  hope  you  may  come  to  see  that  the  views 
shared  by  your  mother  and  me  are  not  erroneous." 

"But  do  not  distress  her,"  ]!^I"esta  implored  him.  "She 
is  not  well.  When  she  has  grown  stronger,  her  kind  heart 
will  move  her  to  receive  the  lady,  so  that  she  may  not  be 
deprived  of  the  society  of  good  women.  I  shall  hope  she 
will  not  disapprove  of  me.     I  cannot  forsake  a  friend." 

"  I  beg  to  say  good-bye,"  said  Dudley. 

She  had  seen  a  rigidity  smite  him  as  she  spoke ;  and  so 
little  startling  was  it,  that  she  might  have  fancied  it 
expected,  save  for  her  knowing  herself  too  serious  to  have 
played  at  wiles  to  gain  her  ends. 

He  "wished  her  prudent  advisers." 

She  thanked  him.  "  In  a  few  days,  Louise  de  Seilles 
will  be  here." 

A  Frenchwoman  and  Papist !  was  the  interjection  of  his 
twist  of  brows. 

Surely  I  must  now  be  free  ?  she  thought  when  he  had 
covered  his  farewell  under  a  salutation  regretful  in 
frostiness. 

A  week  later,  she  had  the  embrace  of  her  Louise,  and 
Armandine  was  made  happy  with  a  piece  of  Parisian 
riband. 

Winter  was  rapidly  in  passage :  changes  were  visible 
everywhere ;  Earth  and  House  of  Commons  and  the  South 
London  borough  exhibited  them ;  Mrs.  Burman  was  the 
sole  exception.  To  the  stupefaction  of  physicians,  in  a 
manner  to  make  a  sane  man  ask  whether  she  was  not  being 

26 


402  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

retained  as  an  instrument  for  one  of  the  darker  purposes 
of  Providence  —  and  where  are  we  standing  if  we  ask  such 
things  ?  —  she  held  on  to  her  thread  of  life. 

February  went  by.  And  not  a  word  from  Themison ;  nor 
from  Carling,  nor  from  the  Eev.  Groseman  Buttermore,  nor 
from  Jarniman.  That  is  to  say,  the  two  former  accepted 
invitations  to  grand  dinners  ;  the  two  latter  acknowledged 
contributions  to  funds  in  which  they  were  interested ;  but 
they  had  apparently  grown  to  consider  Mrs.  Burman  as  an 
establishment,  one  of  our  fixtures.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
was  nothing  to  be  feared  from  her.  Lakelands  feared 
nothing :  the  entry  into  Lakelands  was  decreed  for  the 
middle  of  xipril.  Those  good  creatures  enclosed  the  poor 
woman  and  nourished  her  on  comfortable  fiction.  So  the 
death  of  the  member  for  the  South  London  borough  (fifteen 
years  younger  than  the  veteran  in  maladies)  was  not  to  be 
called  premature,  and  could  by  no  possibity  lead  to  an 
exposure  of  the  private  history  of  the  candidate  for  his 
vacant  seat. 


CHAPTER  XL 

AN  EXPIATION 


Nataly  had  fallen  to  be  one  of  the  solitary  who  have  no 
companionship  save  with  the  wound  they  nurse,  to  chafe  it 
rather  than  try  at  healing.  So  rational  a  mind  as  she  had 
W'as  not  long  in  outliving  mistaken  impressions  ;  she  could 
distinguish  her  girl's  feeling,  and  her  aim  ;  she  could  speak 
on  tlie  subject  with  Dartrey,  and  still  her  wound  bled  on. 
Louise  de  Seilles  comforted  her  partly,  through  an  exalta- 
tion of  Nesta.  Mademoiselle,  however,  by  means  of  a  change 
of  tone  and  look  when  Dudley  Sowerby  and  Dartrey  Penellan 
were  the  themes,  showed  a  too  pronounced  preference  of 
the  more  unstable  one :  —  or  rather,  the  man  adventurous 
out  of  the  world's  highways,  whose  image,  as  husband  of 
such  a  daughter  as  hers,  smote  the  wounded  mother  with  a 
chillness.  Mademoiselle's  occasional  thrill  of  fervency  in 
an  allusion  to  Dartrey,  might  have  tempted  a  suspicious 


AN  EXPIATION  403 

woman  to  indulge  suppositions,  accounting  for  the  young 
Frencliwoman's  novel  tenderness  to  England,  of  which 
Nesta  proudly,  very  happily,  boasted.  The  suspicion  pro- 
posed itself,  and  was  rejected:  for  not  even  the  fever  of 
an  insane  body  could  influence  ]N"ataly's  generous  character, 
to  let  her  moods  divert  and  command  her  thoughts  of 
persons. 

Her  thoughts  were  at  this  time  singularly  lucid  upon 
everything  about  her ;  with  the  one  exception  of  the  reason 
why  she  had  come  to  favour  Dudley,  and  how  it  was  she 
had  been  smitten  by  that  woman  at  Brighton  to  see  herself 
in  her  position  altogether  with  the  world's  relentless,  unex- 
amining  hard  eyes.  Bitterness  added,  of  Mrs.  Marsett :  She 
is  made  an  honest  woman  !  —  And  there  was  a  strain  of  the 
lower  in  Nataly,  to  reproach  the  girl  for  causing  the  reflec- 
tion to  be  cast  on  the  unwedded.  Otherwise  her  mind  was 
open ;  she  was  of  aid  to  Victor  in  his  confusion  over  some 
lost  Idea  he  had  often  touched  on  latterly.  And  she  was 
the  one  who  sent  him  ahead  at  a  trot  under  a  light,  by  say- 
ing :  "  You  would  found  a  new  and  more  stable  aristocracy 
of  the  contempt  of  luxury  :  "  when  he  talked  of  combatting 
the  Jews  with  a  superior  weapon.  That  being,  in  fact,  as 
Colney  Durance  had  pointed  out  to  him,  the  weapon  of  self- 
conquest  used  by  them  "  before  they  fell  away  -to  flesh- 
pottery."  Was  it  his  Idea?  He  fancied  an  aching  at  the 
back  of  his  head  when  he  speculated.  But  his  Idea  had 
been  surpassingly  luminous,  alive,  a  creation ;  and  this  came 
before  him  with  the  yellow  skin  of  a  Theory,  bred,  born  of 
books.  Though  Nataly's  mention  of  the  aristocracy  of  self- 
denying  discipline  struck  a  Lucifer  in  his  darkness. 

Nesta  likewise  helped  :  but  more  in  what  she  did  than  in 
what  she  said  :  she  spoke  intelligently  enough  to  make  him 
feel  a  certain  increase  of  alarm,  amounting  to  a  cursory 
secret  acknowledgement  of  it,  both  at  her  dealings  with 
Dudley  and  with  himself.  She  so  quietly  displaced  the 
lady  visiting  him  at  the  City  ofiices.  His  girl's  disregard  of 
hostile  weather,  and  her  company,  her  talk,  delighted  him  : 
still  he  remonstrated,  at  her  coming  daily.  She  came  :  nor 
was  there  an  instigation  on  the  part  of  her  mother,  clearly 
none :  her  mother  asked  him  once  whether  he  thought  she 
met  the  dreadful  Brighton  woman.     His  Fredi  drove  con- 


404  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUEROKS 

stantly  to  walk  back  beside  him  Westward,  as  he  loved  to 
do  whenever  it  was  practicable  ;  and  exceeding  the  flattery 
of  his  possession  of  the  gallant  daughter,  her  conversation 
charmed  him  to  forget  a  disappointment  caused  by  the 
defeat  and  entire  exclusion  of  the  lady  visiting  him  so 
complimentarily  for  his  advice  on  stocks,  shares,  mines,  et 
caetera.  The  lady  resisted ;  she  was  vanquished,  as  the 
shades  are  displaced  by  simple  apparition  of  daylight. 

His  Fredi  was  like  the  daylight  to  him ;  she  was  the  very 
daylight  to  his  mind,  whatsoever  their  theme  of  converse : 
for  by  stimulating  that  ready  but  vagrant  mind  to  quit  the 
leash  of  the  powerful  senses  and  be  sethereally  excursive,  she 
gave  him  a  new  enjoyment;  which  led  to  reflections  —  a 
sounding  of  Nature,  almost  a  question  to  her,  on  the  verge 
of  a  doubt.  Are  we,  in  fact,  harmonious  with  the  Great 
Mother  when  we  yield  to  the  pressure  of  our  natures  for 
indulgence  ?  Is  she,  when  translated  into  us,  solely  the 
imperious  appetite?  Here  was  Fredi,  his  little  Fredi  — 
stately  girl  that  she  had  grown,  and  grave,  too,  for  all  her 
fun  and  her  sail  on  wings  —  lifting  him  to  pleasures  not 
followed  by  clamorous,  and  perfectly  satisfactory,  yet  dis- 
composingly  violent,  appeals  to  Nature.  They  could  be 
vindicated.  Or  could  they,  when  they  would  not  bear  a 
statement  of  the  case  ?  He  could  not  imagine  himself 
stating  it  namelessly  to  his  closest  friend  —  not  to  Simeon 
Fenellan.  As  for  speaking  to  Dartrey,  the  notion  took  him 
with  shivers :  —  Young  Dudley  would  have  seemed  a  more 
possible  confidant :  —  and  he  represented  the  Puritan  world. 
—  And  young  Dudley  was  getting  over  Fredi's  infatuation 
for  the  woman  she  had  rescued :  he  was  beginning  to  fancy 
he  saw  a  right  enthusiasm  in  it ;  —  in  the  abstract ;  if  only 
the  fair  maid  would  drop  an  unseemly  acquaintance.  He 
had  called  at  the  office  to  say  so.  Victor  stammered  the 
plea  for  him. 

"  Never,  dear  father,"  came  the  smooth  answer :  a  shocking 
answer  in  contrast  with  the  tones.  Her  English  was  as 
lucid  as  her  eyes  when  she  continued  up  to  the  shock  she 
dealt :  "  Do  not  encourage  a  good  man  to  waste  his  thoughts 
upon  me.  I  have  chosen  my  mate,  and  I  may  never  marry 
him.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  would  marry  me.  He  has 
my  soul.     I  have  no  shame  in  saying  I  love  him.     It  is  to 


AN  EXPIATIOK  405 

love  goodness,  greatness  of  heart.  He  is  a  respecter  of 
women  —  of  all  women  ;  not  only  the  fortunate.  He  is  the 
friend  of  the  weaker  everywhere.  He  has  been  proved  in 
fire.  He  does  not  sentimentalize  over  poor  women,  as  we 
know  who  scorns  people  for  doing :  —  and  that  is  better  than 
hardness,  meaning  kindly.  He  is  not  one  of  the  unwise 
advocates.  He  measures  the  forces  against  them.  He  reads 
their  breasts.  He  likes  me.  He  is  with  me  in  my  plans. 
He  has  not  said,  has  not  shown,  he  loves  me.  It  is  too  high 
a  thought  for  me  until  I  hear  it.'' 

"  Has  your  soul ! ''  was  all  that  Victor  could  reply,  while 
the  whole  conception  of  Lakelands  quaked  under  the  crum- 
bling structure. 

Remonstrance,  argument,  a  word  for  Dudley,  swelled  to 
his  lips  and  sank  in  dumbness.  Her  seeming  intuition  — 
if  it  was  not  a  perception  —  of  the  point  where  submission 
to  the  moods  of  his  nature  had  weakened  his  character,  and 
required  her  defence  of  him,  struck  Victor  with  a  serious 
fear  of  his  girl :  and  it  was  the  more  illuminatingly  damna- 
tory for  being  recognized  as  the  sentiment  which  no  father 
should  feel.  He  tried  to  think  she  ought  not  to  be  so  wise 
of  the  things  of  the  world.  An  effort  to  imagine  a  reproof, 
showed  him  her  spirit  through  her  eyes :  in  her  deeds  too  : 
she  had  already  done  work  on  the  road :  —  Colney  Durance, 
Dartrey  Fenellan,  anything  but  sentimentalists  either  of 
them,  strongly  backing  her,  upholding  her.  Victor  could 
no  longer  so  naturally  name  her  Fredi. 

He  spoke  it  hastily,  under  plea  of  some  humorous  tender- 
ness, when  he  ventured.  When  Dudley,  calling  on  him  in 
the  City  to  discuss  the  candidature  for  the  South  London 
borough,  named  her  Fredi,  that  he  might  regain  a  vantage 
of  familiarity  by  imitating  her  father,  it  struck  Victor  as 
audacious.  It  jarred  in  his  recollection,  though  the  heir  of 
the  earldom  spoke  in  the  tone  of  a  lover,  was  really  at  high 
pitch.  He  appeared  to  be  appreciating  her,  to  have  suffered 
stings  of  pain;  he  offered  himself;  he  made  but  one  stipu- 
lation. Victor  regretfully  assured  him,  he  feared  he  could 
do  nothing.  The  thought  of  his  entry  into  Lakelands,  with 
Nesta  Victoria  refusing  the  foundation  stone  of  the  place, 
grew  dim. 

But  he  was  now  canvassing  for  the  Borough,  hearty  at 


406  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

the  new  business  as  the  braced  swimmer  on  seas,  which 
instantly  he  became,  with  an  end  in  view  to  be  gained. 

Late  one  April  night,  expecting  Nataly  to  have  gone  to 
bed,  and  Nesta  to  be  waiting  for  him,  he  reached  home,  and 
found  Nataly  in  her  sitting-room  alone.  "  Nesta  was  tired," 
she  said :  "  we  have  had  a  scene  ;  she  refuses  Mr.  Sowerby ; 
I  am  sick  of  pressing  it;  he  is  very  much  in  earnest,  pain- 
fully ;  she  blames  him  for  disturbing  me  ;  she  will  not  see 
the  right  course  :  —  a  mother  reads  her  daughter  !  If  my 
girl  has  not  guidance  !  —  she  means  rightly,  she  is  rash." 

Nataly  could  not  utter  all  that  her  insaneness  of  feeling 
made  her  think  with  regard  to  Victor's  daughter  —  daughter 
also  of  the  woman  whom  her  hard  conscience  accused  of 
inflammability.  "Here  is  a  note  from  Dr.  Themison, 
dear." 

Victor  seized  it,  perused,  and  drew  the  big  breath. 

"From  Themison,"  he  said;  he  coughed. 

"Don't  think  to  deceive  me,"  said  she.  "I  have  not 
read  the  contents,  I  know  them." 

"  The  invitation  at  last,  for  to-morrow,  Sunday,  four  p.m. 
Odd,  that  next  day  at  eight  of  the  evening  I  shall  be 
addressing  our  meeting  in  the  Theatre.  Simeon  speaks. 
Beaves  Urmsing  insists  on  coming,  Tory  though  he  is. 
Those  Tories  are  jollier  fellows  than  —  well,  no  wonder! 
There  will  be  no  surgical  .  .  .  the  poor  woman  is  very  low. 
A  couple  of  days  at  the  outside.     Of  course,  I  go." 

"  Hand  me  the  note,  dear." 

It  had  to  be  given  up,  out  of  the  pocket. 

"But,"  said  Victor,  "the  mention  of  you  is  merely 
formal." 

She  needed  sleep :  she  bowed  her  head. 

Nataly  was  the  first  at  the  breakfast-table  in  the  morn- 
ing, a  fair  Sunday  morning.  She  was  going  to  Mrs.  John 
Cormyn's  Church,  and  she  asked  Nesta  to  come  with  her. 

She  returned  five  minutes  before  the  hour  of  lunch,  having 
left  Nesta  with  Mrs.  John.  Louise  de  Seilles  undertook  to 
bring  Nesta  home  at  the  time  she  might  choose.  Fenellan, 
Mr.  Pempton,  Peridon  and  Catkin,  lunched  and  chatted. 
Nataly  chatted.  At  a  quarter  to  three  o'clock  Victor's 
carriage  was  at  the  door.  He  rose ;  he  had  to  keep  an 
appointment.    Nataly  said  to  him  publicly  :  "  I  come  too." 


AN  EXPIATION  407 

He  stared  and  nodded.  In  the  carriage,  lie  said :  "I'm 
driving  to  the  Gardens,  for  a  stroll,  to  have  a  look  at  the 
beasts.  Sort  of  relief.  Poor  crazy  woman  !  —  However, 
it 's  a  comfort  to  her :   so !  .  .  ." 

"  I  like  to  see  them,"  said  Nataly.  "  I  shall  see  her.  I 
have  to  do  it.'' 

Up  to  the  gate  of  the  Gardens  Victor  was  arguing  to  dis- 
siiade  his  dear  soul  from  this  very  foolish,  totally  unneces- 
sary, step.  Alighting,  he  put  the  matter  aside,  for  good 
angels  to  support  his  counsel  at  the  final  moment. 

Bears,  lions,  tigers,  eagles,  monkeys  :  they  suggested  no 
more  than  he  would  have  had  from  prints  ;  they  sprang 
no  reflection,  except  that  the  coming  hour  was  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  them.  They  were  about  him,  and  exercised 
so  far  a  distraction.  He  took  very  kindly  to  an  old  mother 
monkey,  relinquishing  her  society  at  sight  of  Nataly's 
heave  of  the  bosom.  Southward,  across  the  park,  the  dread 
house  rose.  He  began  quoting  Colney  Durance  with  relish 
while  sarcastically  confuting  the  cynic,  who  found  much 
pasture  in  these  Gardens.  Over  Southward,  too,  he  would 
be  addressing  a  popular  assembly  to-morrow  evening.  Be- 
tween now  and  then  there  was  a  ditch  to  jump.  He  put  on 
the  sympathetic  face  of  grief.  "After  all,  a  caged  wild 
beast  has  n't  so  bad  a  life,"  he  said.  —  To  be  well  fed  while 
they  live,  and  welcome  death  as  a  release  from  the  maladies 
they  develop  in  idleness,  is  the  condition  of  wealthy  people : 
— creatures  of  prey  ?  horrible  thought !  yet  allied  to  his  Idea, 
it  seemed.  Yes,  but  these  good  caged  beasts  here  set  them 
an  example,  in  not  troubling  relatives  and  friends  when 
they  come  to  the  gasp !  Mrs.  Burman's  invitation  loomed 
as  monstrous  — a  final  act  of  her  cruelty.  His  skin  pricked 
with  dews.  He  thought  of  Kataly  beside  him,  jumping  the 
ditch  with  him,  as  a  relief  —  if  she  insisted  on  doing  it. 
He  hoped  she  would  not,  for  the  sake  of  her  composure. 

It  was  a  ditch  void  of  bottom.  But  it  was  a  mere  matter 
of  an  hour,  less.  The  state  of  health  of  the  invalid  could 
bear  only  a  few  minutes.  In  any  case,  we  are  sure  that  the 
hour  will  pass.  Our  own  arrive  ?  Certainly.  "  Capital 
place  for  children!  "  he  exclaimed.  And  here  startlingly 
before  him  in  the  clusters  of  boys  and  girls,  was  the  differ- 
ence between  young  ones  and  their  elders  feeling  quite  as 


408  OKE  OF  OUPw   CONQUEROES 

young:  the  careless  youngsters  have  not  to  go  and  sit  in  the 
room  with  a  virulent  old  woman,  and  express  penitence  and 
what  not,  and  hear  words  of  pardon,  after  their  holiday 
scamper  and  stare  at  the  caged  beasts. 

Attention  to  the  children  precipitated  him  upon  acquaint- 
ances, hitherto  cleverly  shunned.  He  nodded  them  off,  after 
the  brightest  of  greetings. 

Such  anodyne  as  he  could  squeeze  from  the  incarcerated 
wild  creatures,  was  exhausted.  He  fell  to  work  at  Nataly's 
"  aristocracy  of  the  contempt  of  luxury  ; "  signifying,  that 
we  the  wealthy  will  not  exist  to  pamper  flesh,  but  we  live 
for  the  promotion  of  brotherhood :  —  ay,  and  that  our 
England  must  make  some  great  moral  stand,  if  she  is  not 
to  fall  to  the  rear  and  down.  Unuttered,  it  caught  the  skirts 
of  the  Idea :  it  evaporated  when  spoken.  Still,  this  theme 
was  almost  an  exorcism  of  Mrs.  Burman.  He  consulted  his 
watch.  "  Thirteen  minutes  to  four.  I  must  be  punctual," 
he  said.     Nataly  stepped  faster. 

Seated  in  the  carriage,  he  told  her  he  had  never  felt  the 
horror  of  that  place  before.  "  Put  me  down  at  the  corner 
of  the  terrace,  dear  :  I  won't  drive  to  the  door." 

"  I  come  with  you,  Victor,"  she  replied. 

After  entreaties  and  reasons  intermixed,  to  melt  her  re- 
solve, he  saw  she  was  firm :  and  he  asked  himself,  whether 
he  might  not  be  constitutionally  better  adapted  to  persuade 
than  to  dissuade.  The  question  thumped.  Having  that 
house  of  drugs  in  view,  he  breathed  more  freely  for  the 
prospect  of  feeling  his  Nataly  near  him  beneath  the  roof. 

"  You  really  insist,  dear  love  ?  "  he  appealed  to  her :  and 
her  answer  :  "It  must  be,"  left  no  doubt :  though  he  chose 
to  say  :  "  Not  because  of  standing  by  me  ?  "  And  she  said  : 
"For  my  peace,  Victor."  They  stepped  to  the  pavement. 
The  carriage  was  dismissed. 

Seventeen  houses  of  the  terrace  fronting  the  park  led  to 
the  funereal  one :  and  the  bell  was  tolled  in  the  breast  of 
each  of  the  couple  advancing  with  an  air  of  calmness  to  the 
inevitable  black  door. 

Jarniman  opened  it.  "  His  mistress  was  prepared  to  see 
thera."  —  Not  like  one  near  death.  —  They  were  met  in  the 
hall  by  the  Eev.  Groseman  Buttermore.  "  You  will  find  a 
welcome,"  was  his  reassurance  to  them,  gently  delivered,  on 


AK  EXPIATION  409 

the  stoop  of  a  large  person.  His  whispered  tones  were  more 
agreeably  deadening  than  his  words. 

Mr.  Buttermore  ushered  them  upstairs. 

"  Can  she  bear  it  ?  "  Victor  said,  and  heard  :  "  Her  wish : 
ten  minutes." 

"  Soon  over,"  he  murmured  to  Nataly,  with  a  compassion- 
ate exclamation  for  the  invalid. 

They  rounded  the  open  door.  They  were  in  the  drawing- 
room.  It  was  furnished  as  in  the  old  time,  gold  and  white, 
looking  new ;  all  the  same  as  of  old,  save  for  a  division  of 
silken  hangings ;  and  these  were  pale  blue :  the  colour  pre- 
ferred by  Victor  for  a  bedroom.  He  glanced  at  the  ceiling, 
to  bathe  in  a  blank  space  out  of  memory.  Here  she  lived, 
here  she  slept,  behind  the  hangings.  There  was  refresh- 
ingly that  little  difference  in  the  arrangement  of  the  room. 
The  corner  Korthward  was  occupied  by  the  grand  piano ; 
and  Victor  had  an  inquiry  in  him  :  —  tuned  ?  He  sighed, 
expecting  a  sight  to  come  through  the  hangings.  Sensible 
that  Nataly  trembled,  he  perceived  the  Rev.  Grosemau 
Buttermore  half  across  a  heap  of  shawl-swathe  on  the  sofa. 

Mrs.  Burman  was  present;  seated.  People  may  die 
seated ;  she  had  always  disliked  the  extended  posture  ;  ex- 
cept for  the  night's  rest,  she  used  to  say ;  imagining  herself 
to  be  not  inviting  the  bolt  of  sudden  death,  in  her  attitude, 
when  seated  by  day :  —  and  often  at  night  the  poor  woman 
had  to  sit  up  for  the  qualms  of  her  dyspepsia !  —  But  I  'm 
bound  to  think  humanely,  be  Christian,  be  kind,  benignant, 
he  thought,  and  he  fetched  the  spirit  required,  to  behold  her 
face  emerge  from  a  pale  blue  silk  veiling ;  as  it  were,  the 
inanimate  wasted  led  up  from  the  mould  by  morning. 

Mr.  Buttermore  signalled  to  them  to  draw  near. 

Wasted  though  it  was,  the  face  of  the  wide  orbits  for 
sunken  eyes  was  distinguishable  as  the  one  once  known.  If 
the  world  could  see  it  and  hear,  that  it  called  itself  a  man's 
wife !     She  looked  burnt  out. 

Two  chairs  had  been  set  to  front  the  sofa.  Execution 
there  !  Victor  thought,  and  he  garrotted  the  unruly  mind  of 
a  man  really  feeling  devoutness  in  the  presence  of  the  shadow 
thrown  by  the  dread  Shade. 

"  Ten  minutes,"  Mr.  Buttermore  said  low,  after  obligingly 
placing  them  on  the  chairs. 


410  ONE  OT  OtJE   CONQTTERORS 

He  went.     They  were  alone  with  Mrs.  Burman. 

No  voice  came.  They  were  unsure  of  being  seen  by  the 
floating  grey  of  eyes  patient  to  gaze  from  their  vast  dis- 
tance. Big  drops  fell  from  Nataly's.  Victor  heard  the 
French  time-piece  on  the  mantel-shelf,  where  a  familiar 
gilt  Cupid  swung  for  the  seconds  :  his  own  purchase.  The 
time  of  day  on  the  clock  was  wrong  ;  the  Cupid  swung. 

Nataly's  mouth  was  taking  breath  of  anguish  at  moments. 
More  than  a  minute  of  the  terrible  length  of  the  period  of 
torture  must  have  gone :  two,  if  not  three. 

A  quaver  sounded.  "You  have  come.''  The  voice  was 
articulate,  thinner  than  the  telephonic,  trans-Atlantic  by 
deep-sea  cable. 

Victor  answered :   "  We  have." 

Another  minute  must  have  gone  in  the  silence.  And 
when  we  get  to  five  minutes  we  are  on  the  descent,  rapidly 
counting  our  way  out  of  the  house,  into  the  fresh  air,  where 
we  were  half  an  hour  back,  among  those  happy  beasts  in 
the  pleasant  Gardens! 

Mrs.  Burman's  eyelids  shut.     "  I  said  you  would  come." 

Victor  started  to  the  fire-screen.  "  Your  sight  requires 
protection." 

She  dozed.     "  And  Natalia  Dreighton  ! "  she  next  said. 

They  were  certainly  now  on  the  five  minutes.  Now  for 
the  slide  downward  and  outward !  Nataly  should  never 
have  been  allowed  to  come. 

"  The  white  waistcoat !  "  struck  his  ears. 

"Old  customs  with  me,  always  ! "  he  responded.  "The 
first  of  April,  always.  White  is  a  favourite.  Pale  blue, 
too.  But  I  fear  —  I  hope  you  have  not  distressing  nights  ? 
In  my  family  we  lay  great  stress  on  the  nights  we  pass. 
My  cousins,  the  Miss  Duvidneys,  go  so  far  as  to  judge  of 
the  condition  of  health  by  the  nightly  record." 

"  Your  daughter  was  in  their  house." 

She  knew  everything! 

"  Very  fond  of  my  daughter  —  the  ladies,"  he  remarked. 

"  I  wish  her  well." 

"  You  are  very  kind." 

Mrs.  Burman  communed  within  or  slept.  "Victor, 
Natalia,  we  will  pray,"  she  said. 

Her  trembling  hands  crossed  their  fingers.  Nataly 
slipped  to  her  knees. 


AK  EXPIATION  411 

The  two  women  mutely  praying,  pulled  Victor  into  the 
devotional  hush.  It  acted  on  him  like  the  silent  spell  of 
service  in  a  Church.  He  forgot  his  estimate  of  the  minutes, 
he* formed  a  prayer,  he  refused  to  hear  the  Cupid  swinging, 
he  droned  a  sound  of  sentences  to  deaden  his  ears.  Ideas 
of  eternity  rolled  in  semblance  of  enormous  clouds.  Death 
was  a  black  bird  among  them.  The  piano  rang  to  Nataly's 
young  voice  and  his.  The  gold  and  white  of  the  chairs 
welcomed  a  youth  suddenly  enrolled  among  the  wealthy  by 
an  enamoured  old  lady  on  his  arm.  Cupid  tick-ticked.  —  Poor 
soul !  poor  woman  !  How  little  we  mean  to  do  harm  when 
we  do  an  injury  !  An  incomprehensible  world  indeed  at 
the  bottom  and  at  the  top.  We  get  on  fairly  at  the  centre. 
Yet  it  is  there  that  we  do  the  mischief  making  such  a 
riddle  of  the  bottom  and  the  top.  What  is  to  be  said ! 
Prayer  quiets  one.  Victor  peered  at  Nataly  fervently  on 
her  knees  and  Mrs.  Burman  bowed  over  her  knotted  fingers. 
The  earnestness  of  both  enforced  an  effort  at  a  phrased 
prayer  in  him.  Plungeing  through  a  wave  of  the  scent  of 
Marechale,  that  was  a  tremendous  memory  to  haul  him 
backward  and  forward,  he  beheld  his  prayer  dancing  across 
the  furniture  ;  a  diminutive  thin  black  figure,  elvish,  ir- 
reverent, appallingly  unlike  his  proper  emotion  j  and  he 
brought  his  hands  just  to  touch,  and  got  to  the  edge  of  his 
chair,  with  split  knees.  At  once  the  figure  vanished.  By 
merely  looking  at  Kataly,  he  passed  into  her  prayer.  A 
look  at  Mrs.  Burman  made  it  personal,  his  own.  He  heard 
the  cluck  of  a  horrible  sob  coming  from  him.  After  a 
repetition  of  his  short  form  of  prayer  deeply  stressed,  he 
thanked  himself  with  the  word  "  sincere,"  and  a  queer  side- 
thought  on  our  human  susceptibility  to  the  influence  of 
posture.     We  are  such  creatures. 

Nataly  resumed  her  seat.  Mrs.  Burman  had  raised  her 
liead.  She  said :  "  We  are  at  peace.''  She  presently  said, 
with  effort:  "It  cannot  last  with  me.  I  die  in  nature's 
way.  I  would  bear  forgiveness  with  me,  that  I  may  have 
it  above.  I  give  it  here,  to  you,  to  all.  My  soul  is  cleansed, 
I  trust.  Much  was  to  say.  My  strength  will  not.  Unto 
God,  you  both  !  " 

The  Eev.  Groseman  Buttermore  was  moving  on  slippered 
step  to  the  back  of  the  sofa.    Nataly  dropped  before  the 


412  ONE  OF  OVn  CONQUERORS 

unseeing,  scarce  breathing,  lady  for  an  instant.  Victor 
murmured  an  adieu,  grateful  for  being  spared  the  cere- 
monial shake  of  hands.  He  turned  away,  then  turned  back, 
praying  for  power  to  speak,  to  say  that  he  had  found  his 
heart,  was  grateful,  would  hold  her  in  memory.  He  fell  on  a 
knee  before  her,  and  forgot  he  had  done  so  when  he  had 
risen.  They  were  conducted  by  the  rev.  gentleman  to  the 
hall-door :  he  was  not  speechless.  Jarniman  uttered  some- 
thing. 
That  black  door  closed  behind  them. 


CHAPTEE  XLI 

THE   NIGHT   OF   THE    GREAT   UNDELIVERED    SPEECH 

To  a  man  issuing  from  a  mortuary  where  a  skull  had 
voice,  London  may  be  restorative  as  air  of  Summer  Alps. 
It  is  by  contrast  blooming  life.  Observe  the  fellowship  of 
the  houses  shoulder  to  shoulder ;  and  that  straight  ascend- 
ing smoke  of  the  preparation  for  dinner;  and  the  good 
policeman  yonder,  blessedly  idle  on  an  orderly  Sabbath 
evening;  and  the  families  of  the  minor  people  trotting 
homeward  from  the  park  to  tea ;  here  and  again  an  amiable 
carriage  of  the  superimposed  people  driving  to  pay  visits ; 
they  are  so  social,  friendly,  inviting  to  him  ;  they  strip  him 
of  the  shroud,  sing  of  the  sweet  old  world.  He  cannot  but 
be  moved  to  the  extremity  of  charitableness  neighbouring 
on  tears. 

A  stupefaction  at  the  shock  of  the  positive  reminder, 
echo  of  the  fact  still  shouting  in  his  breast,  that  he  had 
seen  Mrs.  Burman,  and  that  the  interview  was  over  —  the 
leaf  turned  and  the  book  shut  —  held  Victor  in  a  silence 
until  his  gratefulness  to  London  City  was  borne  down  by 
the  more  human  burst  of  gratitude  to  the  dying  woman, 
who  had  spared  him,  as  much  as  she  could,  a  scene  of  the 
convulsive  pathetic,  and  had  not  called  on  him  for  any 
utterance  of  penitence.  That  worm-like  thread  of  voice 
came  up  to  him  still  from  sexton-depths ;  it  sounded  a  larger 


THE  NIGHT  OF  THE  GF.EAT  UNDELIVERED  SPEECH      413 

forgiveness  without  the  word.  He  felt  the  sorrow  of  it  all, 
as  he  told  Nataly ;  at  the  same  time  bidding  her  smell  "  the 
marvellous  0x3' gen  of  the  park."  He  declared  it  to  be  quite 
equal  to  Lakelands. 

She  slightly  pressed  his  arm  for  answer.  Perhaps  she  did 
not  feel  so  deepl}^  ?  She  was  free  of  the  horrid  associations 
with  the  scent  of  Marechale.  At  any  rate,  she  had  com- 
ported herself  admirably ! 

Victor  fancied  he  must  have  shuddered  when  he  passed 
by  Jarniman  at  the  door,  who  was  almost  now  seeing  his 
mistress's  ghost  —  would  have  the  privilege  to-morrow.  He 
called  a  cab  and  drove  to  Mrs.  John  Cormyn's,  at  Nataly's 
request,  for  ISTesta  and  Mademoiselle ;  enjoying  the  London- 
ized  odour  of  the  cab.  Xataly  did  not  respond  to  his  warm 
and  continued  eulogies  of  Mrs.  Burman;  she  rather  dis- 
appointed him.  He  talked  of  the  gold  and  white  furniture, 
he  just  alluded  to  the  Cupid :  reserving  his  mental  comment, 
that  the  time-piece  was  all  astray,  the  Cupid  regular  on  the 
swing :  —  strange,  touching,  terrible,  if  really  the  silly  gilt 
figure  symbolized!  .  .  .  And  we  are  a  silly  figure  to  be 
sitting  in  a  cab  imagining  such  things  !  —  When  ]S"esta  and 
mademoiselle  were  opposite,  he  had  the  pleasure  to  see 
Nataly  take  Nesta's  hand  and  hold  it  until  they  reached 
home.  Those  two  talking  together  in  the  brief  words  of 
their  deep  feeling,  had  tones  that  were  singularly  alike :  the 
mezzo-soprano  filial  to  the  divine  maternal  contralto.  Those 
two  dear  ones  mounted  to  Nataly's  room. 

The  two  dear  ones  showed  themselves  heart  in  heart 
together  once  more ;  each  looked  the  happier  for  it.  Dartrey 
was  among  their  dinner-guests,  and  Nataly  took  him  to  her 
little  blue-room  before  she  went  to  bed.  He  did  not  speak 
of  their  conversation  to  Victor,  but  counselled  him  to  keep 
her  from  excitement.  '^  My  dear  fellow,  if  you  had  seen  her 
with  Mrs.  Burman !  "  Victor  said,  and  loudly  praised  her 
coolness.     She  was  never  below  a  situation,  he  affirmed. 

He  followed  his  own  counsel  to  humour  his  Nataly.  She 
began  panting  at  a  word  about  Mr.  Barmby's  ready  services. 
When,  however,  she  related  the  state  of  affairs  between 
Dartrey  and  Nesta,  by  the  avowal  of  each  of  them  to  her, 
he  said,  embracing  her  :  ^'  Your  wisdom  shall  guide  us,  my 
love,"  and  almost  extinguished  a  vexation  by  concealing  it. 


414  ONE  OF  OUE    CONQUEROKS 

She  sighed  :  "  If  one  could  think  that  a  girl  with  ISTesta's 
revolutionary  ideas  of  the  duties  of  women,  and  their  powers, 
would  be  safe  —  or  at  all  rightly  guided  by  a  man  who  is 
both  one  of  the  noblest  and  the  wildest  in  the  ideas  he 
entertains !  " 

Victor  sighed  too.  He  saw  the  earldom,  which  was  to  daz- 
zle the  gossips,  crack  on  the  sky  in  a  futile  rocket-bouquet. 

She  was  distressed  ;  she  moaned  :  "  My  girl !  my  girl !  I 
should  wish  to  leave  her  with  one  who  is  more  fixed  —  the 
old-fashioned  husband.  New  ideas  must  come  in  politics, 
but  in  Society  !  —  and  for  women  !  And  the  young  having 
heads,  are  the  most  endangered.  Nesta  vows  her  life  to  it ! 
Dartrey  supports  her  !  " 

"See  Colney,"  said  Victor.  "Odd,  Colney  does  you 
good;  some  queer  way  he  has.  Though  you  don't  care 
for  his  KivAL  Tongues,  —  and  the  last  number  was  funny, 
with  Semhians  on  the  Pacific,  impressively  addressing  a 
farewell  to  his  cricket-bat,  before  he  whirls  it  away  to 
Neptune  —  and  the  blue  hand  of  his  nation's  protecting 
God  observed  to  seize  it !  —  Dead  failure  with  the  public, 
of  course  !  Hov/ever,  he  seems  to  seem  wise  with  you. 
The  poor  old  fellow  gets  his  trouncing  from  the  critics 
monthly.  See  Colney  to-morrow,  my  love.  Now  go  to 
sleep.  We  have  got  over  the  worst.  I  speak  at  my 
Meeting  to-morrow  and  am  a  champagne-bottle  of  notes 
and  points  for  them." 

His  lost  Idea  drew  close  to  him  in  sleep :  or  he  thought 
so,  when  awaking  to  the  conception  of  a  people  solidified, 
rich  and  poor,  by  the  common  pride  of  simple  manhood. 
But  it  was  not  coloured,  not  a  luminous  globe:  and  the 
people  were  in  drab,  not  a  shining  army  on  the  march  to 
meet  the  Future.  It  looked  like  a  paragraph  in  a  news- 
paper, upon  which  a  Leading  Article  sits,  dutifully  arous- 
ing the  fat  worm  of  sarcastic  humour  under  the  ribs  of 
cradled  citizens,  with  an  exposure  of  its  excellent  folly. 
He  would  not  have  it  laughed  at;  still  he  could  not  admit 
it  as  more  than  a  skirt  of  the  robe  of  his  Idea.  For  let 
none  think  him  a  mere  City  merchant,  millionnaire, 
boonfellow,  or  music-loving  man  of  the  world.  He  had 
ideas  to  shoot  across  future  Ages;  —  provide  against  the 
shrinkage  of  our  Coal-beds;  against,  and  for,  if  you  like, 


THE  KIGHT  OF  THE  GREAT  UNDELIVEEED  SPEECH      415 

the  thickening,  jumbling,  threatening  excess  of  population 
in  these  Islands,  in  Europe,  America,  all  over  our  liabitable 
sphere.  Now  that  Mrs.  Burman,  on  her  way  to  bliss,  was 
no  longer  the  dungeon-cell  for  the  man  he  would  show 
himself  to  be,  this  name  for  successes,  corporate  nucleus  of 
the  enjoyments,  this  Victor  Montgomery  Radnor,  intended 
impressing  himself  upon  the  world  as  a  factory  of  ideas. 
Colney^s  insolent  charge,  that  the  English  have  no  imagi- 
nation—  a  doomed  race,  if  it  be  true!  —  would  be  con- 
futed. For  our  English  require  but  the  lighted  leadership 
to  come  into  cohesion,  and  step  ranked,  and  chant  har- 
moniously the  song  of  their  benevolent  aim.  And  that 
astral  head  giving,  as  a  commencement,  example  of  the 
right  use  of  riches ,  the  nation  is  one,  part  of  the  riddle  of 
the  future  solved. 

Surely  he  had  here  the  Idea  ?  He  had  it  so  warmly , 
that  his  bath-water  heated.  Only  the  vision  was  wanted. 
On  London  Bridge  he  had  seen  it  —  a  great  thing  done  to 
the  flash  of  brilliant  results.     That  was  after  a  fall. 

There  had  been  a  fall  also  of  the  scheme  of  Lakelands. 

Come  to  us  with  no  superstitious  whispers  of  indications 
and  significations  in  the  fall !  —  But  there  had  certainly 
been  a  moral  fall,  fully  to  the  level  of  the  physical,  in  the 
maintaining  of  that  scheme  of  Lakelands,  now  ruined  by 
his  incomprehensible  Nesta  —  who  had  saved  him  from 
falling  further.  His  bath-water  chilled.  He  jumped 
out  and  rubbed  furiously  with  his  towels  and  flesh-brushes, 
chasing  the  Idea  for  simple  warmth,  to  have  Something 
inside  him,  to  feel  just  that  sustainment;  with  the  cry: 
But  no  one  can  say  I  do  not  love  my  Nataly  !  And  he 
tested  it  to  prove  it  by  his  readiness  to  die  for  her :  which 
is  heroically  easier  than  the  devotedly  living,  and  has  a 
weight  of  evidence  in  our  internal  Courts  for  surpassing 
the  latter  tedious  performance. 

His  Nesta  had  knocked  Lakelands  to  pieces.  Except  for 
the  making  of  money,  the  whole  year  of  an  erected  Lake- 
lands, notwithstanding  uninterrupted  successes,  was  a 
blank.  Or  rather  we  have  to  wish  it  were  a  blank.  The 
scheme  departs :  payment  for  the  enlisted  servants  of  it  is 
in  prospect.  A  black  agent,  not  willingly  enlisted,  yet 
pointing  to  proofs  of  service,  refuses  payment  in  ordinary 


416  ONE  OF  OUB  CONQUERORS 

coin;  and  we  tell  him  we  owe  him  nothing,  that  he  is  not 
a  man  of  the  world,  has  no  understanding  of  Nature :  and 
still  the  fellow  thumps  and  alarums  at  a  midnight  door  we 
are  astonished  to  find  we  have  in  our  daylight  house.  How 
is  it  ?  Would  other  men  be  so  sensitive  to  him  ?  Victor 
was  appeased  by  the  assurance  of  his  possession  of  an 
exceptionally  scrupulous  conscience;  and  he  settled  the 
debate  by  thinking :  "  After  all,  for  a  man  like  me,  battling 
incessantly,  a  kind  of  Vesuvius,  I  must  have  —  can't  be 
starved,  must  be  fed  —  though,  pah  !  But  I  'm  not  to  be 
questioned  like  other  men.  — But  how  about  an  aristocracy 
of  the  contempt  of  distinctions  ?  —  But  there  is  no  escaping 
distinctions  !  my  aristocracy  despises  indulgence.  —  And 
indulges  ?  —  Say,  an  exceptional  nature  !  —  Supposing  a 
certain  beloved  woman  to  pronounce  on  the  case  ?  —  She 
cannot:  no  woman  can  be  a  just  judge  of  it."  —  He  cried: 
"  My  love  of  her  is  testified  by  my  having  Barmby  handy 
to  right  her  to-day,  to-morrow,  the  very  instant  the  clock 
strikes  the  hour  of  my  release  !  " 

Mention  of  the  clock  swung  that  silly  gilt  figure.  Victor 
entered  into  it,  condemned  to  swing,  and  be  a  thrall.  His 
intensity  of  sensation  launched  him  on  an  eternity  of  the 
swinging  in  ridiculous  nakedness  to  the  measure  of  Time 
gone  crazy.  He  had  to  correct  a  reproof  of  Mrs.  Burman, 
as  the  cause  of  the  nonsense.  He  ran  down  to  breakfast, 
hopeing  he  might  hear  of  that  clock  stopped  and  that 
sickening  motion  with  it. 

Another  letter  from  the  Sanfredini  in  Milan,  warmly 
inviting  to  her  villa  over  Como,  acted  on  him  at  breakfast 
like  the  waving  of  a  banner.  "We  go,"  Victor  said  to 
Nataly,  and  flattered-up  a  smile  about  her  lips  —  too  much 
a  resurrection  smile.  There  was  talk  of  the  Meeting  at 
the  theatre:  Simeon  Eenellan  had  spoken  there  in  the 
cause  of  the  deceased  Member,  was  known,  and  was  likely 
to  have  a  good  reception.  Fun  and  enthusiasm  might  be 
expected. 

"And  my  darling  will  hear  her  husband  speak  to-night," 
he  whispered  as  he  was  departing;  and  did  a  mischef,  he 
had  to  fear,  for  a  shadowy  knot  crossed  Nataly's  forehead, 
she  seemed  paler.  He  sent  back  Kesta  and  mademoiselle, 
in  consequence,  at  the  end  of  the  Green  Park. 


THE  NIGHT  OF  THE  GEEAT  UNDELIVERED  SPEECH      417 

Their  dinner-hour  was  early;  Simeon  Fenellan,  Colney 
Durance,  and  Mr.  Peridon  —  pleasing  to  Nataly  for  his 
faithful  siege  of  the  French  fortress  —  were  the  only 
guests.  When  they  rose,  Nataly  drew  Victor  aside.  He 
came  dismayed  to  Nesta.  She  ran  to  her  mother.  "  Not 
hear  papa  speak  ?  Oh,  mother,  mother !  Then  I  stay 
with  her.  But  can't  she  come  ?  He  is  going  to  unfold 
ideas  to  us.     There  ! " 

"My  naughty  girl  is  not  to  poke  her  fun  at  orators," 
Nataly  said.  "No,  dearest;  it  would  agitate  me  to  go. 
I  'm  better  here.  I  shall  be  at  peace  when  the  night  is 
over." 

"But  you  will  be  all  alone  here,  dear  mother." 

Nataly 's  eyes  wandered  to  fall  on  Colney.  He  proposed 
to  give  her  his  company.  She  declined  it.  Nesta  ven- 
tured another  entreaty,  either  that  she  might  be  allowed  to 
stay  or  have  her  mother  with  her  at  the  Meeting. 

" My  love,"  Nataly  said,  "  the  thought  of  the  Meeting  —  " 
She  clasped  at  her  breast;  and  she  murmured:  "I  shall  be 
comforted  by  your  being  with  him.  There  is  no  danger 
there.  But  I  shall  be  happy,  I  shall  be  at  peace  when 
this  night  is  over." 

Colney  persuaded  her  to  have  him  for  companion.  Mr. 
Peridon,  who  was  to  have  driven  with  Nesta  and  made- 
moiselle, won  admiration  by  proposing  to  stay  for  an  hour 
and  play  some  of  Mrs.  Radnor's  favourite  pieces.  Nesta 
and  Victor  overbore  Nataly's  objections  to  the  lover's  gen- 
erosity. So  Mr.  Peridon  was  left.  Nesta  came  hurrying 
back  from  the  step  of  the  carriage  to  kiss  her  mother  again, 
saying :  "  Just  one  last  kiss,  my  own !  And  she  's  not  to 
look  troubled.  I  shall  remember  everything  to  tell  my 
own  mother.     It  will  soon  be  over." 

Her  mother  nodded ;  but  the  embrace  was  passionate. 

Nesta  called  her  father  into  the  passage,  bidding  him 
prohibit  any  delivery  to  her  mother  of  news  at  the  door. 
"  She  is  easily  startled  now  by  trifles  —  you  have  noticed  ?" 

Victor  summoned  his  recollections  and  assured  her  he 
had  noticed,  as  he  believed  he  had.  "  The  dear  heart  of 
her  is  fretting  for  the  night  to  be  over!  And  think!  — 
seven  days,  and  she  is  in  Lakelands.  A  fortnight,  and 
we  have  our  first  Concert.     Durandarte !     Oh,   the   dear 

27 


418  ONE   OF   OUK   CONQUEBOBS 

heart  '11  be  at  peace  when  I  tell  her  of  a  triumphant  Meet- 
ing. Not  a  doubt  of  that,  even  though  Colney  turns  the 
shadow  of  his  back  on  us." 

"  One  critic  the  less  for  you ! "  said  Nesta.  Skepsey  was 
to  meet  her  carriage  at  the  theatre.   . 

Ten  minutes  later,  Victor  and  Simeon  Fenellan  were 
proceeding  thitherward  on  foot. 

"I  have  my  speech,"  said  Victor.  "You  prepare  the 
way  for  me,  following  our  influential  friend  Dubbleson; 
Colewort  winds  up ;  anyone  else  they  shout  for.  We  shall 
have  a  great  evening.  I  suspect  I  shall  find  Themison  or 
Jarniman  when  I  get  home.  You  don't  believe  in  intima- 
tions ?  I  've  had  crapy  processions  all  day  before  my  eyes. 
No  wonder,  after  yesterday  !  " 

"Dubbleson  must  n't  drawl  it  out  too  long,"  said 
Fenellan. 

"  We  '11  drop  a  hint.     Where  's  Dartrey  ?  " 

"He'll  come.  He's  in  one  of  his  black  moods:- not 
temper.  He  's  got  a  notion  he  killed  his  wife  by  dragging 
her  to  Africa  with  him.  She  was  not  only  ready  to  go, 
she  was  glad  to  go.  She  had  a  bit  of  the  heroine  in  her 
and  a  certainty  of  tripping  to  the  deuce  if  she  was  left  to 
herself." 

"Tell  Nataly  that,"  said  Victor.  "And  tell  her  about 
Dartrey.  Harp  on  it.  Once  she  was  all  for  him  and. our 
girl.  But  it 's  a  woman  —  though  the  dearest  1  I  defy 
anyone  to  hit  on  the  cause  of  their  changes.  We  must 
make  the  best  of  things,  if  we  're  for  swimming.  The  task 
for  me  to-night  will  be,  to  keep  from  rolling  out  all  I  've 
got  in  my  head.  And  I  'm  not  revolutionary,  I  'm  for  sta- 
bility. Only  I  do  see  that  the  firm  stepping-place  asks 
for  a  long  stride  to  be  taken.  One  can't  get  the  English 
to  take  a  stride  —  unless  it's  for  a  foot  behind  them:  — 
bother  old  Colney !  Too  timid,  or  too  scrupulous,  down  we 
go  into  the  mire.  There!  —  But  I  want  to  say  it!  I  want 
to  save  the  existing  order.  I  want  Christianity,  instead 
of  the  Mammonism  we  're  threatened  with.  Great  fortunes 
now  are  becoming  the  giants  of  old  to  stalk  the  land :  or 
mediaeval  Barons.  Dispersion  of  wealth,  is  the  secret. 
Nataly  's  of  that  mind  with  me.  A  decent  poverty  !  She 's 
ratheic  wearying,  wants  a  change.     I  've  a  steam-yacht  in 


THE  NIGHT  OF  THE  GEEAT  UNDELIVERED  SPEECH      419 

my  eye,  for  next  moutli  ou  the  Mediterranean.  All  our 
set.  She  likes  quiet.  I  believe  in  my  political  recipe 
for  it." 

He  thumped  on  a  method  he  had  for  preserving  aris- 
tocracy —  true  aristocracy,  amid  a  positively  democratic 
flood  of  riches. 

"  It  appears  to  me,  you  're  on  the  road  of  Priscilla 
Graves  and  Pempton,"  observed  Simeon.  "Strike  off 
Priscilla's  viands  and  friend  Pempton's  couple  of  glasses, 
and  there  's  your  aristocracy  established ;  but  with  rather 
a  dispersed  recognition  of  itself." 

"  Upon  my  word,  you  talk  like  old  Colney,  except  for  a 
twang  of  your  own,"  said  Victor.  "Colney  sours  at  every 
fresh  number  of  that  Serial.  The  last,  with  Delphica  de- 
tecting the  plot  of  Palarique,  is  really  not  so  bad.  The 
four  disguised  members  of  the  Comedie  Frangaise  on  board 
the  vessel  from  San  Francisco,  to  declaim  and  prove  the' 
superior  merits  of  the  Gallic  tongue,  jumped  me  to  bravo 
the  cleverness.  And  Bobinikine  turning  to  the  complexion 
of  the  remainder  of  cupboard  dumpling  discovered  in  an 
emigrant's  house-to-let!  And  Semhians  —  I  forget  what: 
and  Mytharete's  forefinger  over  the  bridge  of  his  nose,  like 
a  pensive  vulture  on  the  skull  of  a  desert  camel !  But,  I 
complain,  there  's  nothing  to  make  the  English  love  the 
author;  and  it 's  wasted,  he  's  basted,  and  the  book  '11  have 
no  sale.     I  hate  satire." 

"  Rough  soap  for  a  thin  skin,  Victor.  Does  it  hurt  our 
people  much  ?  " 

"  Xot  a  bit ;  does  n't  touch  them.  But  I  want  my  friends 
to  succeed !  " 

Their  coming  upon  Westminster  Bridge  changed  the 
theme.  Victor  wished  the  Houses  of  Parliament  to  catch 
the  beams  of  sunset.  He  deferred  to  the  suggestion  that 
the  Hospital's  doing  so  seemed  appropriate. 

"I'm  always  pleased  to  find  a  decent  reason  for  what 
w,"  he  said.  Then  he  queried:  "But  what  is,  if  we  look 
at  it,  and  while  we  look,  Simeon  ?  She  may  be  going  —  or 
she  's  gone  already,  poor  woman !  I  shall  have  that  scene 
of  yesterday  everlastingly  before  my  eyes,  like  a  drop- 
curtain.  Only,  you  know,  Simeon,  they  don't  feel  the 
end,  as  we  in  health  imagine.      Colney  would  say,    we 


420  OKE   OJT   OUH   CONQUEEOBS 

have  the  spasms  and  they  the  peace.  I  've  a  mind  to  send 
up  to  Regent's  Park  with  inquiries.  It  would  look  re- 
spectful. God  forgive  me !  —  the  poor  woman  perverts  me 
at  every  turn.  Though  I  will  say,  a  certain  horror  of 
death  I  had  —  she  whisked  me  out  of  it  yesterday.  I  don't 
feel  it  any  longer.     What  are  you  jerking  at  ?  " 

"Only  to  remark  that  if  the  thing's  done  for  us,  we 
haven't  it  so  much  on  our  sensations." 

"More,  if  we're  sympathetic.  But  that  compels  us  to 
be  philosophic  —  or  who  could  live !     Poor  woman !  " 

"  Waft  her  gently,  Victor!  " 

"  Tush !  Now  for  the  South  side  of  the  Bridges ;  and  I 
tell  you,  Simeon,  what  I  can't  mention  to-night:  I  mean 
to  enliven  these  poor  dear  people  on  their  forsaken  South 
of  the  City.  I  've  my  scheme.  Elected  or  not,  I  shall 
hardly  be  accused  of  bribery  when  I  put  down  my  first 
instalment." 

Fenellan  went  to  work  with  that  remark  in  his  brain  for 
the  speech  he  was  to  deliver.  He  could  not  but  reflect 
on  the  genial  man's  willingness  and  capacity  to  do  deeds 
of  benevolence,  constantly  thwarted  by  the  position  into 
which  he  had  plunged  himself. 

They  were  received  at  the  verge  of  the  crowd  outside  the 
theatre-doors  by  Skepsey,  who  wriggled,  tore  and  clove 
a  way  for  them,  where  all  were  obedient,  but  the  numbers 
lumped  and  clogged.  When  finally  they  reached  the  stage, 
they  spied  at  Nesta's  box,  during  the  thunder  of  the 
rounds  of  applause,  after  shaking  hands  with  Mr.  Dubble- 
Bon,  Sir  Abraham  Quatley,  Dudley  Sowerby,  and  others; 
and  with  Beaves  Urmsing  —  a  politician  "never  of  the 
opposite  party  to  a  deuce  of  a  funny  fellow  I  —  go  any- 
where to  hear  him,"  he  vowed. 

"Miss  Eadnor  and  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  arrived  quite 
safely,"  said  Dudley,  feasting  on  the  box  which  contained 
them  and  no  Dartrey  Fenellan  in  it. 

Nesta  was  wondering  at  Dartrey's  absence.  Not  before 
Mr.  Dubbleson,  the  chairman,  the  "gentleman  of  local 
influence,"  had  animated  the  drowsed  wits  and  respiratory 
organs  of  a  pa^cked  audience  by  yielding  place  to  Simeon, 
did  Dartrey  appear,  Simeon's  name  was  shouted,  in  proof 
of  the  happy  explosion  of  his  first  anecdote,  as  Dartrey 


THE  NIGHT  OF  THE  CEEAT  UKDELtVERED  SPEECH      421 

took  seat  behind  Nesta.  "Half  an  hour  with  the  dear 
mother,"  he  said. 

Nesta's  eyes  thanked  him.  She  pressed  the  hand  of  a 
demure  young  woman  sitting  close  behind  Louise  de 
Seilles.     "You  know  Matilda  Pridden." 

Dartrey  held  his  hand  out.     "  Has  she  forgiven  me  ?  " 

Matilda  bowed  gravely,  enfolding  her  affirmative  in  an 
outline  of  the  no  need  for  it,  with  perfect  good  breeding. 
Dartrey  was  moved  to  think  Skepsey's  choice  of  a  woman 
to  worship  did  him  honour.  He  glanced  at  Louise.  Her 
manner  toward  Matilda  Pridden  showed  her  sisterly  with 
Nesta.  He  said :  "  I  left  Mr.  Peridon  playing.  —  A  little 
anxiety  to  hear  that  the  great  speech  of  the  evening  is 
done;  it's  nothing  else.  I'll  run  to  her  as  soon  as  it's 
over." 

"Oh,  good  of  you!  And  kind  of  Mr.  Peridon!"  She 
turned  to  Louise,  who  smiled  at  the  simple  art  of  the 
exclamation,  assenting. 

Victor  below,  on  the  stage  platform,  indicated  the  wav- 
ing of  a  hand  to  them  and  his  delight  at  Simeon's  ringing 
points:  which  were,  to  Dartrey's  mind,  vacuously  clever 
and  crafty.  Dartrey  despised  effects  of  oratory,  save  when 
soldiers  had  to  be  hurled  on  a  mark  — ■  or  citizens  nerved  to 
stand  for  their  country. 

Nesta  dived  into  her  father's  brilliancy  of  appreciation, 
a  trifle  pained  by  Dartrey's  aristocratic  air  when  he  sur- 
veyed the  herd  of  heads  agape  and  another  cheer  rang 
round.  He  smiled  with  her,  to  be  with  her,  at  a  hit  here 
and  there ;  he  would  not  pretend  an  approval  of  this  manner 
of  winning  electors  to  consider  the  country's  interests  and 
their  own.  One  fellow  in  the  crowded  pit,  affecting  a 
familiarity  with  Simeon,  that  permitted  the  taking  of 
liberties  with  the  orator's  Christian  name,  mildly  amused 
him.  He  had  no  objection  to  hear  "  Simmy  "  shouted,  as 
Louise  de  Seilles  observed.  She  was  of  his  mind,  in  re- 
gard to  the  rough  machinery  of  Freedom. 

Skepsey  entered  the  box. 

"We  shall  soon  be  serious.  Miss  Nesta,"  he  said,  after 
a  look  at  Matilda  Pridden. 

There  was  prolonged  roaring  —  on  the  cheerful  side. 

"And  another  word  about  security  that  your  candidate 


422  ONE  OF  ojm  cokqiteroes 

will  keep  his  promises,"  continued  Simeon:  "You  have 
his  word,  my  friends  !  "  And  he  told  the  story  of  the  old 
Governor  of  Goa,  who  wanted  money  and  summoned  the 
usurers,  and  they  wanted  security;  whereupon  he  laid  his 
Hidalgo  hand  on  a  cataract  of  Kronos-beard  across  his 
breast,  and  pulled  forth  three  white  hairs,  and  presented 
them :  "  And  as  honourably  to  the  usurious  Jews  as  to  the 
noble  gentleman  himself,  that  security  was  accepted ! " 

Emerging  from  hearty  clamours,  the  illustrative  orator 
fell  upon  the  question  of  political  specifics :  —  Mr.  Victor 
Radnor  trusted  to  English  good  sense  too  profoundly  to  be 
offering  them  positive  cures,  as  they  would  hear  the  enemy 
say  he  did.  Yet  a  bit  of  a  cure  may  be  offered,  if  we  're 
not  for  pushing  it  too  far,  in  pursuit  of  the  science  of 
specifics,  in  the  style  of  the  foreign  physician,  probably 
Spanish,  who  had  no  practice,  and  wished  for  leisure  to 
let  him  prosecute  his  anatomical  and  other  investigations 
to  discover  his  grand  medical  nostrum.  So  to  get  him 
fees  meanwhile  he  advertised  a  cure  for  dyspepsia  —  the 
resource  of  starving  doctors.  And  sure  enough  his 
patient  came,  showing  the  grand  fat  fellow  we  may  be 
when  we  carry  more  of  the  deciduously  mortal  than  of  the 
scraggy  vital  upon  our  persons.  Anyone  at  a  glance  would 
have  prescribed  water-cresses  to  him :  water-cresses  exclu- 
sively to  eat  for  a  fortnight.  And  that  the  good  physician 
did.  Away  went  his  patient,  returning  at  the  end  of  the 
fortnight,  lean,  and  with  the  appetite  of  a  Toledo  blade  for 
succulent  slices.  He  vowed  he  was  the  man.  Our  esti- 
mable doctor  eyed  him,  tapped  at  him,  pinched  his  tender 
parts;  and  making  him  swear  he  was  really  the  man,  and 
had  eaten  nothing  whatever  but  unadulterated  water- 
cresses  in  the  interval,  seized  on  him  in  an  ecstasy  by  the 
collar  of  his  coat,  pushed  him  into  the  surgery,  knocked 
him  over,  killed  him,  cut  him  up,  and  enjoyed  the  felicity 
of  exposing  to  view  the  very  healthiest  patient  ever  seen 
under  dissecting  hand,  by  favour  of  the  fortunate  discovery 
of  the  specific  for  him.  All  to  further  science !  —  to  which, 
in  spite  of  the  petitions  of  all  the  scientific  bodies  of  the 
civilized  world,  he  fell  a  martyr  on  the  scaffold,  poor  gen- 
tleman! But  we  know  politics  to  be  no  such  empirical 
science. 


THE  KIGHT  OF  THE  GBEAT  UKDELIYEEED  SPEECH     42^ 

Simeon  ingeniously  interwove  his  analogy.  He  brought 
it  home  to  Beaves  Urmsing,  whose  laugh  drove  any  tone 
of  apology  out  of  it.  Yet  the  orator  was  asked :  "  Do  you 
take  politics  for  a  joke,  Simmy  ?  " 

He  countered  his  questioner :  "  Just  to  liberate  you  from 
your  moribund  state,  my  friend."  And  he  told  the  story 
of  the  wrecked  sailor,  found  lying  on  the  sands,  flung  up 
from  the  foundered  ship  of  a  Salvation  captain;  and  how 
that  nothing  could  waken  him,  and  there  he  lay  fit  for  in- 
terment; until  presently  a  something  of  a  voice  grew 
down  into  his  ears;  and  it  was  his  old  chum  Polly,  whom 
he  had  tied  to  a  board  to  give  her  a  last  chance  in  the 
surges;  and  Polly  shaking  the  wet  from  her  feathers,  and 
shouting:  ^^ Polly  tho  dram  dry  !  "  — which  struck  on  the 
nob  of  Jack's  memory,  to  revive  all  the  liquorly  tricks  of 
the  cabin  under  Salvationism,  and  he  began  heaving,  and 
at  last  he  shook  in  a  lazy  way,  and  then  from  sputter  to 
sputter  got  his  laugh  loose;  and  he  sat  up,  and  cried: 
"  That  did  it !  Now  to  business !  "  for  he  was  hungry. 
"And  when  I  catch  the  ring  of  this  world's  laugh  from 
you,  my  friend  !  .  .  ."  Simeon's  application  of  the  story 
was  drowned. 

After  the  outburst,  they  heard  his  friend  again  inter- 
ruptingly:  "You  keep  that  tongue  of  yours  from  wagging, 
as  it  did  when  you  got  round  the  old  widow  woman  for  her 
money,  Simmy  I  " 

Victor  leaned  forward.  Simeon  towered.  He  bellowed : 
"And  you  keep  that  tongue  of  yours  from  committing 
incest  on  a  lie  !  " 

It  was  like  a  lightning-flash  in  the  theatre.  The  man 
went  under.  Simeon  flowed.  Conscience  reproached  him 
with  the  little  he  had  done  for  Victor,  and  he  had  now  his 
congenial  opportunity. 

Up  in  the  box,  the  powers  of  the  orator  were  not  so 
cordially  esteemed.  To  Matilda  Pridden,  his  tales  were 
barely  decently  the  flesh  and  the  devil  smothering  a  holy 
occasion  to  penetrate  and  exhort.  Dartrey  sat  rigid,  as 
with  the  checked  impatience  for  a  leap.  Nesta  looked  at 
Louise  when  some  one  was  perceived  on  the  stage  bending 
to  her  father.  It  was  Mr.  Peridon;  he  never  once  raised 
his  face.     Apparently  he  was  not  intelligible  or  audible : 


424  ONE   OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

but  the  next  moment  Victor  sprang  erect.  Dartrey 
quitted  the  box.  Nesta  beheld  her  father  uttering  hurried 
words  to  right  and  left.  He  passed  from  sight,  Mr. 
Peridon  with  him;  and  Dartrey  did  not  return. 

Nesta  felt  her  father's  absence  as  light  gone:  his  eyes 
rayed  light.  Besides  she  had  the  anticipation  of  a  speech 
from  him,  that  would  win  Matilda  Pridden.  She  fancied 
Simeon  Fenellan  to  be  rather  under  the  spell  of  the 
hilarity  he  roused.  A  gentleman  behind  him  spoke  in 
his  ear;  and  Simeon,  instead  of  ceasing,  resumed  his  flow. 
Matilda  Pridden's  gaze  on  him  and  the  people  was  painful 
to  behold:  Nesta  saw  her  mind.  She  set  herself  to  study 
a  popular  assembly.  It  could  be  serious  to  the  call  of 
better  leadership,  she  believed.  Her  father  had  been  tell- 
ing her  of  late  of  a  faith  he  had  in  the  English,  that  they 
(or  so  her  intelligence  translated  his  remarks)  had  power 
to  rise  to  spiritual  ascendancy,  and  be  once  more  the 
Islanders  heading  the  world  of  a  new  epoch  abjuring  mate- 
rialism:—  some  such  idea;  very  quickening  to  her,  as  it 
would  be  to  this  earnest  young  woman  worshipped  by 
Skepsey.  Her  father's  absence  and  the  continued  shouts 
of  laughter,  the  insatiable  thirst  for  fun,  darkened  her  in 
her  desire  to  have  the  soul  of  the  good  working  sister 
refreshed.  They  had  talked  together;  not  much:  enough 
for  each  to  see  at  cither's  breast  the  wells  from  the  founts 
of  life. 

The  box-door  opened,  Dartrey  came  in.  He  took  her 
hand.  She  stood-up  to  his  look.  He  said  to  Matilda 
Pridden:  "Come  with  us;  she  will  need  you." 

''Speak  it,"  said  Nesta. 

He  said  to  the  other:  "She  has  courage." 

"I  could  trust  to  her,"  Matilda  Pridden  replied. 

Nesta  read  his  eyes.     "  Mother  ?  " 

His  answer  was  in  the  pressure. 

"111?" 

"No  longer." 

"Oh!  Dartrey." 

Matilda  Pridden  caught  her  fast. 

"  I  can  walk ,  dear, "  Nesta  said. 

Dartrey  mentioned  her  father. 

She  understood:  "I  am  thinking  of  him." 


THE  LAST  425 

The  words  of  her  mother :  •'  At  peace  when  the  night  is 
over,  '^  rang.  Along  the  gassy  passages  of  the  back  of  the 
theatre,  the  sound  coming  from  an  applausive  audience 
was  as  much  a  thunder  as  rage  would  have  been.  It  was 
as  void  of  human  meaning  as  a  sea. 


CHAPTER  XLII 

THE   LAST 


In  the  still  dark  hour  of  that  April  morning,  the  Rev. 
Septimus  Barmby  was  roused  by  Mr.  Peridon,  with  a 
scribbled  message  from  Victor,  which  he  deciphered  by 
candlelight  held  close  to  the  sheet  of  paper,  between  short 
inquiries  and  communications,  losing  more  and  more  the 
sense  of  it  as  his  intelligence  became  aware  of  what  dread 
blow  had  befallen  the  stricken  man.  He  was  bidden  come 
to  fulfil  his  promise  instantly.  He  remembered  the  bear- 
ing of  the  promise.  Mr.  Peridon's  hurried  explanatory 
narrative  made  the  request  terrific,  out  of  tragically 
lamentable.  A  semblance  of  obedience  had  to  be  put  on, 
and  the  act  of  dressing  aided  it.  Mr.  Barmby  prayed  at 
heart  for  guidance  further. 

The  two  gentlemen  drove  Westward,  speaking  little  j 
they  had  the  dry  sob  in  the  throat. 

"  Miss  Radnor  ?  "  Mr.  Barmby  asked. 

"  She  is  shattered  j  she  holds  up ;  she  would  not  break 
down." 

"I  can  conceive  her  to  possess  high  courage." 

**She  has  her  friend  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles." 

Mr.  Barmby  remained  humbly  silent.  Affectionate  deep 
regrets  moved  him  to  say :  "  A  loss  irreparable.  We  have 
but  one  voice  of  sorrow.  And  how  sudden!  The  dear  lady 
had  no  suffering,  I  trust." 

"  She  fell  into  the  arms  of  Mr.  Durance.  She  died  in 
his  arms.  She  was  unconscious,  he  says.  I  left  her 
straining  for  breath.  She  said  *  Victor;  '  she  tried  to 
smile ;  —  I  understood  I  was  not  to  alarm  him," 


426  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS 

"And  he  too  late!" 

"He  was  too  late,  by  some  minutes." 

"  At  least  I  may  comfort.  Miss  Kadnor  must  be  a  bless- 
ing to  him." 

"They  cannot  meet.     Her  presence  excites  him." 

That  radiant  home  of  all  hospitality  seemed  opening  on 
from  darker  chambers  to  the  deadly  dark.  The  immo- 
rality in  the  moral  situation  could  not  be  forgotten  by  one 
who  was  professionally  a  moralist.  But  an  incorruptible 
beauty  in  the  woman's  character  claimed  to  plead  for  her 
memory.  Even  the  rigorous  in  defence  of  righteous  laws 
are  softep^ed  by  a  sinner's  death  to  hear  excuses,  and  may 
own  a  relationship,  haply  perceive  the  faint  nimbus  of  the 
saint.  Death  among  us  proves  us  to  be  still  not  so  far 
from  the  Nature  saying  at  every  avenue  to  the  mind: 
Earth  makes  all  sweet. 

Mr.  Durance  had  prophesied  a  wailful  end  ever  to  the 
carol  of  Optimists !  Yet  it  is  not  the  black  view  which  is 
the  right  view.  There  is  one  between:  the  path  adopted 
by  Septimus  Barmby :  —  if  he  could  but  induce  his  brethren 
to  enter  on  it!  The  dreadful  teaching  of  circumstances 
might  help  to  the  persuading  of  a  fair  young  woman,  under 
his  direction  .  .  .  having  her  hand  disengaged.  —  Mr. 
Barmby  startled  himself  in  the  dream  of  his  uninterred 
passion  for  the  maiden :  he  chased  it,  seized  it,  hurled  it 
hence,  as  a  present  sacrilege :  —  constantly,  and  at  the 
pitch  of  our  highest  devotion  to  serve,  are  we  assailed  by 
the  tempter!  Is  it  that  the  love  of  woman  is  our  weak- 
ness ?  For  if  so,  then  would  a  celibate  clergy  have  grant 
of  immunity.  But,  alas,  it  is  not  so  with  them!  We 
have  to  deplore  the  hearing  of  reports  too  credible.  Again 
we  are  pushed  to  contemplate  woman  as  the  mysterious 
obstruction  to  the  perfect  purity  of  soul.  Nor  is  there  a 
refuge  in  asceticism.  No  more  devilish  nourisher  of  pride 
do  we  find  than  in  pain  voluntarily  embraced.  And 
strangely,  at  the  time  when  our  hearts  are  pledged  to 
thoughts  upon  others,  they  are  led  by  woman  to  glance  i 
revolving  upon  ourself,  our  vile  self!  Mr.  Barmby 
clutched  it  by  the  neck.  ! 

Light  now,  as  of  a  strong  memory  of  day  along  the 
street,  assisted  him  to  forget  himself  at  the  sight  of  the 


THE  LAST  427 

inanimate  houses  of  this  liOndon,  all  revealed  in  a  quietness 
not  less  immobile  than  tombstones  of  an  unending  ceme- 
tery, with  its  last  ghost  laid.  Did  men  but  know  it !  — 
The  habitual  necessity  to  amass  matter  for  the  weekly  ser- 
mon, set  him  noting  his  meditative  exclamations,  the  noble 
army  of  platitudes  under  haloes,  of  good  use  to  men :  justi- 
fiably turned  over  in  his  mind  for  their  good.  He  had  to 
think  that  this  act  of  the  justifying  of  the  act  reproached 
him  with  a  lack  of  due  emotion,  in  sympathy  with  ago- 
nized friends  truly  dear.  Drawing  near  the  hospitable 
house,  his  official  and  a  cordial  emotion  united,  as  we  see 
sorrowful  crape -wreathed  countenances.  His  heart  struck 
heavily  when  the  house  was  visible. 

Could  it  be  the  very  house  ?  The  look  of  it  belied 
the  tale  inside.  But  that  threw  a  ghostliness  on  the 
look. 

Some  one  was  pacing  up  and  down.  They  greeted 
Dudley  Sowerby.  His  ability  to  speak  was  tasked.  They 
gathered,  that  mademoiselle  and  "  a  Miss  Pridden  '^  were 
sitting  with  Nesta,  and  that  their  service  in  a  crisis  had 
been  precious.  At  such  times,  one  of  them  reflected, 
woman  has  indeed  her  place :  when  life's  battle  waxes  red. 
Her  soul  must  be  capable  of  mounting  to  the  level  of  the 
man's,  then  ?     It  is  a  lesson! 

Dudley  said  he  was  waiting  for  Dr.  Themison  to  come 
forth.     He  could  not  tear  himself  from  sight  of  the  house. 

The  door  opened  to  Dr.  Themison  departing,  Colney 
Durance  and  Simeon  Fenellan  bare-headed.  Colney  showed 
a  face  with  stains  of  the  lashing  of  tears. 

Dr.  Themison  gave  his  final  counsels.  "Her  father 
must  not  see  her.  For  him,  it  may  have  to  be  a  specialist. 
We  will  hope  the  best.  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan  stays  beside 
him :  —  good.  As  to  the  ceremony  he  calls  for,  a  form  of 
it  might  soothe :  — ■  any  soothing  possible !  No  music.  I 
will  return  in  a  few  hours." 

He  went  on  foot. 

Mr.  Barmby  begged  advice  from  Colney  and  Simeon 
concerning  the  message  he  had  received  —  the  ceremony 
requiring  his  official  presidency.  Neither  of  them  replied. 
They  breathed  the  morning  air,  they  gave  out  long-drawu 
sighs  of  relief,  looking  on  the  trees  of  the  park. 


428  ONE  OP   OFK  CONQUEROES 

A  man  came  along  the  pavement,  working  slow  legs 
hurriedly.     Simeon  ran  down  to  him. 

"Humour,  as  much  as  you  can,"  Colney  said  to  Mr. 
Barmby.     "Let  him  imagine." 

"Miss  Kadnor?" 

"  Not  to  speak  of  her ! " 

"  The  daughter  he  so  loves  ?  " 

Mr.  Barmby 's  tender  inquisitiveness  was  unanswered. 
Were  they  inducing  him  to  mollify  a  madman  ?  But  was 
it  possible  to  associate  the  idea  of  madness  with  Mr. 
Radnor  ? 

Simeon  ran  back.     "Jarniman,"  he  remarked.     "It's 


over  1 


1" 


"Now!"  Colney's  shoulders  expressed  the  comment. 
"Well,  now,  Mr.  Barmby,  you  can  do  the  part  desired. 
Come  in.     It 's  morning  !  "     He  stared  at  the  sky. 

All  except  Dudley  passed  in. 

Mr.  Barmby  wanted  more  advice,  his  dilemma  being  acute. 
It  was  moderated,  though  not  more  than  moderated,  when 
he  was  informed  of  the  death  of  Mrs.  Burman  Eadnor;  an 
event  that  occurred,  according  to  Jarniman's  report,  forty- 
five  minutes  after  Skepsey  had  a  second  time  called  for 
information  of  it  at  the  house  in  Begent's  Park :  five  hours 
and  a  half,  as  Colney  made  his  calculation,  after  the  death 
of  Nataly.  He  was  urged  by  some  spur  of  senseless  irony 
to  verify  the  calculation  and  correct  it  in  the  minutes. 

Dudley  crossed  the  road.  No  sign  of  the  awful  interior 
was  on  any  of  the  windows  of  the  house  either  to  deepen 
awe  or  relieve.  They  were  blank  as  eyeballs  of  the 
mindless.  He  shivered.  Death  is  our  common  cloak;  but 
Calamity  individualizes,  to  set  the  unwounded  speculating 
whether  indeed  a  stricken  man,  who  has  become  the  cause 
of  woeful  trouble,  may  not  be  pointing  a  moral.  Pacing 
on  the  Park  side  of  the  house,  he  saw  Skepsey  drive 
up  and  leap  out  with  a  gentleman,  Mr.  Radnor's  lawyer. 
Could  it  be  that  there  was  no  Will  written  ?  Could  a 
Will  be  executed  now  ?  The  moral  was  more  forcibly 
suggested.  Dudley  beheld  this  Mr.  Victor  Radnor  success- 
ful up  all  the  main  steps,  persuasive,  popular,  brightest 
of  the  elect  of  Fortune,  felled  to  the  ground  within  an 
hour,  he  and  all  his  house !    And  if  at  once  to  pass  beneath 


THE  LAST  429 

tlie  ground,  the  blow  would  have  seemed  merciful  for  him. 
Or  if,  instead  of  chattering  a  mixture  of  the  rational  and 
the  monstrous,  he  had  been  heard  to  rave  like  the  utterly 
distraught.  KecoUection  of  some  of  the  things  he  shouted, 
was  an  anguish :  —  A  notion  came  into  the  poor  man,  that 
he  was  the  dead  one  of  the  two,  and  he  cried  out :  "  Cre- 
mation ?  No,  Colney  's  right,  it  robs  us  of  our  last  laugh. 
I  lie  as  I  fall."  He  "had  a  confession  for  his  Natal j,  for 
her  only,  for  no  one  else."  He  had  "an  Idea."  His 
begging  of  Dudley  to  listen  without  any  punctilio  (putting 
a  vulgar  oath  before  it),  was  the  sole  piece  of  unreason- 
ableness in  the  explanation  of  the  idea :  and  that  was  not 
much  wilder  than  the  stuff  Dudley  had  read  from  reports 
of  Radical  speeches.  He  told  Dudley  he  thought  him  too 
young  to  be  "best  man  to  a  widower  about  to  be  married," 
and  that  Barmby  was  "  coming  all  haste  to  do  the  business, 
because  of  no  time  to  spare." 

Dudley  knew  but  the  half,  and  he  did  not  envy  Dartrey 
Fenellan  his  task  of  watching  over  the  wreck  of  a  splendid 
intelligence,  humouring  and  restraining.  According  to 
the  rumours,  Mr.  Radnor  had  not  shown  the  symptoms 
before  the  appearance  of  his  daughter.  For  awhile  he 
hung,  and  then  fell,  like  an  icicle.  Nesta  came  with  a 
cry  for  her  father.  He  rose;  Dartrey  was  by.  Hugged 
fast  in  iron  muscles,  the  unhappy  creature  raved  of  his 
being  a  caged  lion.  These  things  Dudley  had  heard  in  the 
house. 

There  are  scenes  of  life  proper  to  the  grave-cloth. 

Nataly's  dead  body  was  her  advocate  with  her  family, 
with  friends ,  with  the  world.  Victor  had  more  need  of  a 
covering  shroud  to  keep  calamity  respected.  Earth  makes 
all  sweet:  and  we,  when  the  privilege  is  granted  us,  do 
well  to  treat  the  terribly  stricken  as  if  they  had  entered 
to  the  bosom  of  earth. 

That  night's  infinite  sadness  was  concentrated  upon 
Nesta.     She  had  need  of  her  strength  of  mind  and  body. 

The  night  went  past  as  a  year.  The  year  followed  it  as 
a  refreshing  night.  Slowly  lifting  her  from  our  abysses, 
it  was  a  good  angel  to  the  girl.  Permission  could  not  be 
given  for  her  to  see  her  father.  She  had  a  home  in  the 
modest    home  of    Louise  de  Seilles  on  tho  borders  of 


430  ONE  OF  OUR  COKQUERORS 

Dauphine;  and  with  Frencli  hearts  at  their  best  in  win- 
ningness  around  her,  she  learned  again,  as  an  art,  the 
natural  act  of  breathing  calmly ;  she  had  by  degrees  a  long- 
ing for  the  snow-heights.  When  her  imagination  could 
perch  on  them  with  love  and  pride,  she  began  to  recover 
the  throb  for  a  part  in  human  action.  It  set  her  nature 
flowing  to  the  mate  she  had  chosen,  who  was  her  coun- 
sellor, her  supporter,  and  her  sword.  She  had  awakened 
to  new  life,  not  to  sink  back  upon  a  breast  of  love,  though 
thoughts  of  the  lover  were  as  blows  upon  strung  musical 
chords  at  her  bosom.  Her  union  with  Dartrey  was  for 
the  having  an  ally  and  the  being  an  ally,  in  resolute  vision 
of  strife  ahead,  through  the  veiled  dreams  that  bear  the 
blush.  This  was  behind  a  maidenly  demureness.  Are 
not  young  women  hypocrites  ?  Who  shall  fathom  their 
guile!  A  girl  with  a  pretty  smile,  a  gentle  manner,  a 
liking  for  wild  flowers  upon  the  rocks ;  and  graceful  with 
resemblances  to  the  swelling  proportions  of  garden-fruits 
approved  in  young  women  by  the  connoisseur  eye  of  man ; 
distinctly  designed  to  embrace  the  state  of  marriage,  that 
she  might  (a  girl  of  singularly  lucid  and  receptive  eyes)  the 
better  give  battle  to  men  touching  matters  which  they 
howl  at  an  eccentric  matron  for  naming.  So  it  was. 
And  the  yielding  of  her  hand  to  Dartrey  would  have 
appeared  at  that  period  of  her  revival,  as  among  the 
baser  compliances  of  the  fleshly,  if  she  had  not  seen 
in  him,  whom  she  owned  for  leader,  her  fellow  soldier, 
warrior  friend,  hero,  of  her  own  heart's  mould,  but  a 
greater. 

She  was  on  Co  mo,  at  the  villa  of  the  Signora  Giulia 
Sanfredini,  when  Dudley's  letter  reached  her,  with  the 
supplicating  offer  of  the  share  of  his  earldom.  An  English 
home  meanwhile  was  proposed  to  her  at  the  house  of  his 
mother  the  Countess.  He  knew  that  he  did  not  write  to 
a  brilliant  heiress.  The  generosity  she  had  always  felt 
that  he  possessed,  he  thus  proved  in  figures.  They  are  con- 
vincing and  not  melting.  But  she  was  moved  to  tears  by 
his  goodness  in  visiting  her  father,  as  well  as  by  the  hopeful 
news  he  sent.  He  wrote  delicately,  withholding  the  title 
of  her  father's  place  of  abode.  There  were  expectations  of 
her  father's  perfect  recovery  j  the  signs  were  auspicious  j 


THE  LAST  431 

he  appeared  to  be  restored  to  the  "  likeness  to  himself  "  in 
the  instances  Dudley  furnished:  —  his  appointment  with 
him  for  the  flute-duet  next  day;  and  particularly  his  enthu- 
siastic satisfaction  with  the  largeness  and  easy  excellent 
service  of  the  residence  "in  which  he  so  happily  found 
himself  established."  He  held  it  to  be,  "on  the  whole, 
superior  to  Lakelands."  The  smile  and  the  tear  rolled 
together  in  Kesta  reading  these  words.  And  her  father 
spoke  repeatedly  of  longing  to  embrace  his  Fredi,  of  the 
joy  her  last  letter  had  .given  him,  of  his  intention  to  send 
an  immediate  answer:  and  he  showed  Dudley  a  pile  of 
manuscript  ready  for  the  post.  He  talked  of  public 
affairs,  was  humorous  over  any  extravagance  or  eccen- 
tricity in  the  views  he  took;  notably  when  he  alluded  to 
his  envy  of  little  Skepsey.  He  said  he  really  did  envy; 
and  his  daughter  believed  it  and  saw  fair  prospects  in  it. 

Her  grateful  reply  to  the  young  earl  conveyed  all  that 
was  perforce  ungentle,  in  the  signature  of  the  name  of 
Nesta  Victoria  Fenellan :  —  a  name  he  was  to  hear  cited 
among  the  cushioned  conservatives,  and  plead  for  as  he 
best  could  under  a  pressure  of  disapprobation,  and  com- 
pelled esteem,  and  regrets. 

The  day  following  the  report  of  her  father's  wish  to  see 
her,  she  and  her  husband  started  for  England.  On  that 
day,  Victor  breathed  his  last.  Dudley  had  seen  the  not 
hopeful  but  an  ominous  illumination  of  the  stricken  man ; 
for  whom  came  the  peace  his  Nataly  had  in  earth.  Often 
did  Nesta  conjure  up  to  vision  the  palpitating  form  of  the 
beloved  mother  with  her  hand  at  her  mortal  wound  in 
secret  through  long  years  of  the  wearing  of  the  mask  to 
keep  her  mate  inspirited.  Her  gathered  knowledge  of 
things  and  her  ruthless  penetrativeness  made  it  sometimes 
hard  for  her  to  be  tolerant  of  a  world  whose  tolerance  of 
the  infinitely  evil  stamped  blotches  on  its  face  and  shrieked 
in  stains  across  the  skin  beneath  its  gallant  garb.  That 
was  only  when  she  thought  of  it  as  the  world  condemning 
her  mother.  She  had  a  husband  able  and  ready,  in  return 
for  corrections  of  his  demon  temper,  to  trim  an  ardent 
young  woman's  fanatical  overflow  of  the  sisterly  senti- 
ments; scholarly  friends,  too,  for  such  restrainings  from 
excess  as  the  mind  obtains  in  a  lamp  of  History  exhibiting 


432  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUEEOES 

man's  original  sprouts  to  growth  and  fitful  continuation 
of  them.  Her  first  experience  of  the  grief  that  is  in 
pleasure,  for  those  who  have  passed  a  season,  was  when 
the  old  Concert-set  assembled  round  her.  When  she  heard 
from  the  mouth  of  a  living  woman,  that  she  had  saved  her 
from  going  under  the  world's  waggon-wheels,  and  taught 
her  to  know  what  is  actually  meant  by  the  good  living  of 
a  shapely  life,  Nesta  had  the  taste  of  a  harvest  happiness 
richer  than  her  recollection  of  the  bride's,  though  never 
was  bride  in  fuller  flower  to  her  lord  than  she  who  brought 
the  dower  of  an  equal  valiancy  to  Dartrey  Fenellan.  You 
are  aware  of  the  reasons,  the  many,  why  a  courageous 
young  woman  requires  of  high  heaven,  far  more  than  the 
commendably  timid,  a  doughty  husband.  She  had  him; 
otherwise  would  that  puzzled  old  world,  which  beheld  her 
step  out  of  the  ranks  to  challenge  it,  and  could  not  blast 
her  personal  reputation,  have  commissioned  a  paw  to  maul 
her  character,  perhaps  instructing  the  gossips  to  murmur 
of  her  parentage.  Nesta  Victoria  Fenellan  had  the  hus- 
band who  would  have  the  world  respectful  to  any  brave 
woman.     This  one  was  his  wife. 

Daniel  Skepsey  rejoices  in  service  to  his  new  master, 
owing  to  the  scientific  opinion  he  can  at  any  moment  of  the 
day  apply  for,  as  to  the  military  defences  of  the  country; 
instead  of  our  attempting  to  arrest  the  enemy  by  vocifera- 
tions of  persistent  prayer :  —  the  sole  point  of  difference 
between  him  and  his  Matilda;  and  it  might  have  been 
fatal  but  that  Kesta's  intervention  was  persuasive.  The 
two  members  of  the  Army  first  in  the  field  to  enrol  and 
give  rank  according  to  the  merits  of  either,  to  both  sexes, 
were  made  one.  Colney  Durance  (practically  cynical  when 
not  fancifully,  men  said)  stood  by  Skepsey  at  the  altar. 
His  published  exercises  in  Satire  produce  a  flush  of  the 
article  in  the  Reviews  of  his  books.  Meat  and  wine  in 
turn  fence  the  Hymen  beckoning  Priscilla  and  Mr.  Pemp- 
ton.  The  forms  of  Religion  more  than  the  Channel's 
division  of  races  keep  Louise  de  Seilles  and  Mr.  Peridon 
asunder:  and  in  the  uniting  of  them  Colney  is  interested, 
because  it  would  have  so  pleased  the  woman  of  the  loyal 
heart  no  longer  beating.  He  let  Victor's  end  be  his  expia- 
tion and  did  not  phrase  blame  of  him.     He  considered  the 


THE  LAST  433 

shallowness  of  the  abstract  Optimist  exposed  enough  in 
Victor's  history.  He  was  reconciled  to  it  when,  looking 
on  their  child,  he  discerned  that  for  a  cancelling  of  the 
errors  chargeable  to  them,  the  father  and  mother  had  kept 
faith  with  Nature. 


THE  END 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
T0«>#-     202  Main  Library 


1  /^AM    DCDir^i^    1 

o 

4 

5                                6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

1  -month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405 

6-month  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books  to  Circulation  Desk 

Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  mode  4  days  prior  to  due  dote 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

t^OV  ^■01982  ^- 

RECcm.  DEC  131 

2 

APR  2  1  ?(\M 

JUL  0 1  20C 

4 

' 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 

FORM  NO.  DD6,  60m,  12/80        BERKELEY,  CA  94720 

(g)$ 

CD5SDSnS7 


\  514199 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


iiiiiiiuuiiiiinii 


